news 2020

Stimulating the vagus nerve in the ear can help relieving chronic pain. TU Wien and MedUni Vienna have developed novel, sophisticated methods for electric stimulation of the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve plays an important role in our body. It consists of various fibres, some of which connect to the internal organs, but the vagus nerve can also be found in the ear.

Engineers have demonstrated a practical way to use magnetism to transmit electricity wirelessly to recharge electric cars, robots or even drones. The technology could be scaled up to power electric cars as they drive over highways, robots on factory floors and drones hovering over rooftops. Stanford engineers have taken a big step toward making it practical for electric cars to recharge as they speed along futuristic highways built to "refuel" vehicles wirelessly.

Leaky waveguide could help devices find one another on future, high-speed data networks By Kevin Stacey Special to Rice News When you open a laptop, a router can quickly locate it and connect it to the local Wi-Fi network. That ability, known as link discovery, is a basic element of any wireless network, and now a team of engineering researchers from Rice University and Brown University has developed a way to do that with terahertz radiation, the high-frequency waves that could one day make for ultrafast wireless data transmission.

MIT researchers have developed a way to incorporate electronic sensors into stretchy fabrics, allowing them to create shirts or other garments that could be used to monitor vital signs such as temperature, respiration, and heart rate. The sensor-embedded garments, which are machine washable, can be customized to fit close to the body of the person wearing them.

Using integrated photonic chips fabricated at EPFL, scientists have demonstrated laser-based microwave generators. These microwave signals, as well as their optical carriers, could be used in radars, satellite communications and future 5G wireless networks. In our information society, the synthesis, distribution, and processing of radio and microwave signals are ubiquitous in wireless networks, telecommunications, and radars.

Unlike the magnetic materials used to make a typical memory device, antiferromagnets won't stick to your fridge. That's because the magnetic spins in antiferromagnets are oppositely aligned and cancel each other out. Scientists have long theorized that antiferromagnets have potential as materials for ultrafast stable memories.

Device for harnessing terahertz radiation might enable self-powering implants, cellphones, other portable electronics. Any device that sends out a Wi-Fi signal also emits terahertz waves -electromagnetic waves with a frequency somewhere between microwaves and infrared light. These high-frequency radiation waves, known as "T-rays," are also produced by almost anything that registers a temperature, including our own bodies and the inanimate objects around us.

Researchers at EPFL have developed a nanodevice that operates more than 10 times faster than today's fastest transistors, and about 100 times faster than the transistors you have on your computers. This new device enables the generation of high-power terahertz waves. These waves, which are notoriously difficult to produce, are useful in a rich variety of applications ranging from imaging and sensing to high-speed wireless communications.

Electronically controlled 2-D reflector promises improved microwave communications, beam steering without moving pieces, and one-way microwave mirrors Our new reflectors offer lightweight, low-profile alternatives to conventional antennas. This is a potential boon for satellites, where minimizing weight and size is crucial.

System "recruits" defects that usually cause disruptions, using them to instead carry out quantum operations. In an advance that may help researchers scale up quantum devices, an MIT team has developed a method to "recruit" neighboring quantum bits made of nanoscale defects in diamond, so that instead of causing disruptions they help carry out quantum operations.

The work, which is reported , was carried out in collaboration with the University of Southampton and the Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. The invention is an important development for all-electric vehicles and more-electric aircraft which require electronics with integrated data storage that can operate in extreme temperatures with high energy efficiency.

In place of flat "breadboards," 3D-printed CurveBoards enable easier testing of circuit design on electronics products. The aim is to provide a faster, easier way to test circuit functions and user interactions with products such as smart devices and flexible electronics. Breadboards are rectangular boards with arrays of pinholes drilled into the surface.

InSight's Imperial-designed instrument has revealed that Mars trembles more often, but also more mildly, than expected. Detecting hundreds of marsquakes on a planet 140 million miles from Earth, using sensors developed in the UK, is an important achievement. Amanda Solloway UK Science Minister An international team of scientists led by NASA created Mars InSight , the first mission to study the deep interior of Mars , to generate unprecedented data about the planet's inner structure.

Researchers at ETH have measured the timing of single writing events in a novel magnetic memory device with a resolution of less than 100 picoseconds. Their results are relevant for the next generation of main memories based on magnetism. At the Department for Materials of the ETH in Zurich, Pietro Gambardella and his collaborators investigate tomorrow's memory devices.

Presentation at ISSCC 2020 Shows Role FD-SOI Can Play in Embedding Qubit Arrays with Classic Electronics to Build Large-Scale Quantum Silicon Processors SAN FRANCISCO - Feb. Leti, an institute of CEA, and CEA-IRIG, a fundamental research institute, have created the world's first quantum integrated circuit that demonstrates the possibility of integrating conventional electronic devices and elements with quantum dots on a CMOS chip.

Next-generation devices made with new "peel and stack" method may include electronic chips worn on the skin. Because computer chips are rigid, the electronic devices that they power, such as our smartphones, laptops, watches, and televisions, are similarly inflexible. Now a process developed by MIT engineers may be the key to manufacturing flexible electronics with multiple functionalities in a cost-effective way.

Engineers at Caltech and Stanford University have developed a tiny prosthetic that enables jellyfish to swim faster and more efficiently than they normally do, without stressing the animals. The researchers behind the project envision a future in which jellyfish equipped with sensors could be directed to explore and record information about the ocean.