A combined electrolyte and separator for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries developed at Rice University in the US supplies energy at usable voltages and in high temperatures. An essential part of the non flammable, toothpaste-like composite is hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), also known as ‘white graphene’.The team, led by materials...

Research scientists at the Leibniz Institute for New Materials (INM) have developed a single stage process that allows conductive paths just a few microns wide to be created on carrier materials such as glass and flexible foils. Previously, says the team, manufacturing conductive paths was a time consuming process using several steps. The team beli...

Harnessing solar power is said by researchers to require a material that not only absorbs light efficiently, but which also converts the energy to highly mobile electrical current. Looking to find this ‘ideal mix’ in a single material is a challenge, so scientists have been experimenting with ways to ‘hybrids’.Scientists...

Engineers from the University of Pennsylvania claim to have developed an approach for making transistors by sequentially depositing their components in the form of liquid nanocrystal ‘inks’.The researchers began by taking nanocrystals, or roughly spherical nanoscale particles, with the electrical qualities necessary for a transistor...

Cadence has unveiled its next-generation Virtuoso platform providing designers with significant performance and capacity improvements across the platform. New technologies within the Virtuoso Analogue Design Environment (ADE) and enhancements to the Virtuoso Layout Suite have been added to address changing requirements for automotive safety, medica...

PTC has announced its Vuforia augmented reality (AR) platform will support Microsoft HoloLens. This capability has been demonstrated at Build 2016, Microsoft’s annual developer conference at San Francisco.Vuforia allows the HoloLens to connect experiences to specific things in the environment. This capability has been used to create 3D vi...

The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) is leading a consortium to create a UK manufacturing supply chain that aims to enable the widespread adoption of packaging incorporating Near-field Communication (NFC) based technology.The three year project, entitled ‘SCOPE’, is building the manufacturing capability, capacity and skills requi...

A team of researchers from Kansas State University, led by Gurpreet Singh, associate professor of mechanical and nuclear engineering, has created a paperlike battery electrode using silicon oxycarbide-glass and graphene.The battery electrode is claimed to be more than 10% lighter than other battery electrodes and has close to 100% cycling effic...

According to research by Japanese startup, Flosfia, gallium oxide could replace silicon as the best material for use in electronic components such as diodes and transistors as it is cheaper, more efficient and capable of handling high voltages.Although this weakness is addressed by devices made from silicon carbide and gallium nitride, both hav...

Synopsys has launched Custom Compiler, a design solution intended to close what the company calls a FinFET productivity gap.Dave Reed, director of marketing for Synopsys’ mixed signal and analogue group, noted that, as companies move to FinFET based designs, productivity has declined by up to a factor of three. “Companies are moving...