Researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have identified a way to make a semiconductor laser that operates at terahertz frequencies.Terahertz waves can be used to analyse plastics, clothing, semiconductors and works of art without damaging the materials being examined; for chemical sensing and identificati...

Scientists at the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a novel electrolyte for use in solid-state lithium batteries that is claimed to overcome many of the problems that plague other solid electrolytes while also showing signs of being compatible with next-generation cathodes.Berkeley...

Researchers from Zhejiang University and Hangzhou Dianzi University, China have developed the Darwin Neural Processing Unit (NPU), a neuromorphic hardware co-processor based on Spiking Neural Networks (SNN), fabricated by standard CMOS technology.Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is a type of information processing system based on mimicking the p...

According to US researchers, energy storage system owners could see significant savings from a new flow battery technology that is projected to cost 60% less than today's standard flow batteries.The organic aqueous flow battery is expected to cost £120 per kilowatt-hour once the technology is fully developed. The lower cost is due to...

Researchers from the University of Cambridge are developing technologies which use deep learning techniques to help machines to recognise their location and surroundings. The systems could be used for the development of driverless cars and autonomous robotics.The systems can identify a user’s location and orientation in places where GPS d...

Researchers from MIT’s Microsystems Technologies Laboratories have claimed that a Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) gas sensor could be produced by desktop 3D printing at one-hundredth the cost of traditional sensor fabrication techniques.In 2014, MEMS were a $12billion business, but has traditionally required sophisticated semiconduc...

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Singapore’s National Research Foundation have announced a joint £2.4million research call, which will fund six joint research projects over the next three years. The projects will see UK and Singapore-based researchers collaborating to develop solutions that will enhance...

A team of engineers from Cornell University, the University of Notre Dame and the semiconductor company IQE has created gallium nitride (GaN) power diodes capable of serving as the building blocks for future GaN power switches. These switches could be used in applications spanning nearly all electronics products and electricity distribution infrast...

In a move which it expects to revolutionise the low power WAN (LPWAN) market, the Weightless SIG has unveiled Weightless-P, an open standard tailored to deliver ubiquitous wide area IoT connectivity. The duplex wireless link is said to support adaptive data rates of up to 100kbit/s through a scalable network technology inspired by the mobile phone...

Researchers at Aalto University in Finland say they have created metallic graphene nanoribbons that are five carbon atoms wide. The results suggest the ribbons could be used as metallic interconnects in future microprocessors.Graphene nanoribbons have been suggested as ideal wires for use in future nanoelectronics: when reduced to the atomic sc...