DARPA Project to Examine Terahertz for Wireless Communications
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), in collaboration with the New York University Tandon School of Engineering; the Universities of California at Santa Barbara, Berkeley, and San Diego; Cornell University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as several industrial partners, has launched a hub for advanced wireless and sensing research. Researchers at the ComSenTer hub are developing technologies to take advantage of the high gigahertz and terahertz spectrum for imaging and sensing applications. NYU researcher Sundeep Rangan notes the results of initial millimeter-wave field trials suggest such transmissions provide people with more coverage than had been anticipated.
New Device Could Increase Battery Life of Electronic Devices by More Than a Hundred-Fold
Battery-operated electronics users often complain that battery life is too short and the devices generate too much heat, and researchers at the University of Missouri (MU) have developed a material that could solve both problems. Led by MU’s Deepak K. Singh, the team developed a two-dimensional, nanostructured material by depositing a magnetic permalloy on the honeycomb structure template of a silicon substrate. The new material conducts unidirectional current, and when built into a diode, dissipates significantly less power compared to a conventional semiconducting diode. The new magnetic diode could be used to create new magnetic transistors and amplifiers that dissipate very little power, thus boosting the efficiency of the power source in electronic devices.
Making Radio Chips for Hell
Researchers at the University of Arkansas and KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden have developed a wireless radio mixer integrated circuit, known as a mixer IC, which can operate at temperatures up to 500 degrees Celsius. The mixer IC was designed by KTH’s Ana Rusu, packaged by Arkansas researcher Alan Mantooth’s group, and then tested by Rusu’s group. The new device translates a 59-megahertz radio frequency signal to a 500-kilohertz signal to enable signal processing. The researchers are also developing sensors for the interior of diesel engine combustion chambers so computers can better control engine efficiency, as well as developing power electronics for actuating a drill bit at the bottom of an oil well, where temperatures can reach 150 degrees Celsius.