Rice materials scientists create flat sandwich of sulfur, molybdenum and selenium

Like a sandwich with wheat on the bottom and rye on the top, Rice University scientists have cooked up a tasty new twist on two-dimensional materials.

The Rice laboratory of materials scientistJun Louhas made a semiconductingtransition-metal dichalcogenide(TMD) that starts as a monolayer ofmolybdenum diselenide. They then strip the top layer of the lattice and replace precisely half the selenium atoms with sulfur.

The new material they callJanussulfur molybdenum selenium (SMoSe) has a crystalline construction the researchers said can host an intrinsic electric field and that also shows promise for catalytic production of hydrogen.

The work is detailed this month in the American Chemical Society journalACS Nano.

The two-faced material is technically two-dimensional, but like molybdenum diselenide it consists of three stacked layers of atoms arranged in a grid. From the top, they look like hexagonal rings a lagraphene, but from any other angle, the grid is more like a nanoscalejungle gym.

Tight control of the conditions in a typicalchemical vapor depositionfurnace 800 degrees Celsius (1,872 degrees Fahrenheit) at atmospheric pressure allowed the sulfur to interact with only the top layer of selenium atoms and leave the bottom untouched, the researchers said. If the temperature drifts above 850, all the selenium is replaced.

Like the intercalation of many other molecules demonstrated to have the ability to diffuse into the layered materials, diffusion of gaseous sulfur molecules in between the layers of theseVan der Waalscrystals, as well as the space between them and the substrates, requires sufficient driving force, said Rice postdoctoral researcher Jing Zhang, co-lead author of the paper with graduate student Shuai Jia. And the driving force in our experiments is controlled by the reaction temperature.

Close examination showed the presence of sulfur gave the material a larger band gap than molybdenum diselenide, the researchers said.

This type of two-faced structure has long been predicted theoretically but very rarely realized in the 2-D research community, Lou said. The break of symmetry in the out-of-plane direction of 2-D TMDs could lead to many applications, such as a basal-plane active 2-D catalyst, robust piezoelectricity-enabled sensors and actuators at the 2-D limit.

He said preparation of the Janus material should be universal to layered materials with similar structures. It will be quite interesting to look at the properties of the Janus configuration of other 2-D materials, Lou said.

Co-authors of the paper are graduate students Weibing Chen and Zehua Jin and postdoctoral researcher Hua Guo of Rice; research scientist Iskandar Kholmanov and professor Li Shi, the Myron L. Begeman Fellow in Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin; and graduate students Liang Dong and Dequan Er and Vivek Shenoy, a professor of materials science and engineering, of mechanical engineering and applied mechanics and of bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Lou is a professor of materials science and nanoengineering.

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Welch Foundation, the Army Research Office and the National Science Foundation supported the research.

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Two Faced 2D Material is a First at Rice - R & D Magazine

Machine-learning system for smoother streaming To combat the frustration of video buffering or pixelation, researchers at MITs Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have developed Pensieve, an artificial intelligence system that uses machine learning to pick different algorithms depending on network conditions thereby delivering a higher-quality streaming experience with less rebuffering than existing systems.

Studies show that users abandon video sessions if the quality is too low, leading to major losses in ad revenue for content providers. Sites constantly have to be looking for new ways to innovate, according to MIT Professor Mohammad Alizadeh, whose team created Pensieve.

Sites like YouTube use adaptive bitrate (ABR) algorithms to try to give users a more consistent viewing experience. At the same time, it saves bandwidth: People usually dont watch videos all the way through, and so, with literally 1 billion hours of video streamed every day, it would be a big waste of resources to buffer thousands of long videos for all users at all times.

In experiments, Pensieve could stream video with 10 to 30 percent less rebuffering than other approaches, and at levels that users rated 10 to 25 percent higher on key quality of experience metrics. (Source: MIT CSAIL)

The researchers pointed out that while ABR algorithms have generally gotten the job done, viewer expectations for streaming video keep inflating, and often arent met when sites like Netflix and YouTube have to make imperfect trade-offs between things like the quality of the video versus how often it has to rebuffer.

The Pensieve AI system was found to be able to stream video with 10 to 30 percent less rebuffering than other approaches, and at levels that users rated 10 to 25 percent higher on key quality of experience (QoE) metrics.

In experiments, Pensieve could stream video with 10 to 30 percent less rebuffering than other approaches, and at levels that users rated 10 to 25 percent higher on key quality of experience metrics. (Source: MIT CSAIL)

Pensieves neural network surveys the conditions of the users network in order to determine the appropriate bitrate for the situation. (Source: MIT)

Pensieve can also be customized based on a content providers priorities. For example, if a user on a subway is about to enter a dead zone, YouTube could turn down the bitrate so that it can load enough of the video that it wont have to rebuffer during the loss of network, the team said.

Mimicking human thought According to Purdue University researchers, a new computing technology called organismoids mimics some aspects of human thought by learning how to forget unimportant memories while retaining more vital ones.

Purdue postdoctoral research associate Fan Zuo, at left, and materials engineering professor Shriram Ramanathan, used a ceramic quantum material to create the technology. (Source: Purdue University)

Kaushik Roy, Purdue Universitys Edward G. Tiedemann Jr. Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering explained, The human brain is capable of continuous lifelong learning, and it does this partially by forgetting some information that is not critical. I learn slowly, but I keep forgetting other things along the way, so there is a graceful degradation in my accuracy of detecting things that are old. What we are trying to do is mimic that behavior of the brain to a certain extent, to create computers that not only learn new information but that also learn what to forget.

Central to the research is a ceramic quantum material called samarium nickelate, which was used to create devices called organismoids. The work was performed by researchers at Purdue, Rutgers University, MIT, Brookhaven National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory.

These devices possess certain characteristics of living beings and enable us to advance new learning algorithms that mimic some aspects of the human brain, Roy said. The results have far reaching implications for the fields of quantum materials as well as brain-inspired computing.

When exposed to hydrogen gas, the material undergoes a massive resistance change, as its crystal lattice is doped by hydrogen atoms. The material is said to breathe, expanding when hydrogen is added and contracting when the hydrogen is removed.

The main thing about the material is that when this breathes in hydrogen there is a spectacular quantum mechanical effect that allows the resistance to change by orders of magnitude. This is very unusual, and the effect is reversible because this dopant can be weakly attached to the lattice, so if you remove the hydrogen from the environment you can change the electrical resistance.

Organismoids might have applications in the emerging field of spintronics. Conventional computers use the presence and absence of an electric charge to represent ones and zeroes in a binary code needed to carry out computations. Spintronics, however, uses the spin state of electrons to represent ones and zeros, the team said. This could bring circuits that resemble biological neurons and synapses in a compact design not possible with CMOS circuits. Whereas it would take many CMOS devices to mimic a neuron or synapse, it might take only a single spintronic device. In future work, the researchers said they may demonstrate how to achieve habituation in an integrated circuit instead of exposing the material to hydrogen gas.

RNA nanodevices in living cells Synthetic biologists at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University are converting microbial cells into living devices that are able to perform useful tasks ranging from the production of drugs, fine chemicals and biofuels to detecting disease-causing agents and releasing therapeutic molecules inside the body.

To accomplish this, they said they fit cells with artificial molecular machinery that can sense stimuli such as toxins in the environment, metabolite levels or inflammatory signals. Much like electronic circuits, these synthetic biological circuits can process information and make logic-guided decisions. Unlike their electronic counterparts, however, biological circuits must be fabricated from the molecular components that cells can produce, and they must operate in the crowded and ever-changing environment within each cell.

So far, synthetic biological circuits can only sense a handful of signals, giving them an incomplete picture of conditions in the host cell. They are also built out of several moving parts in the form of different types of molecules, such as DNAs, RNAs, and proteins, that must find, bind and work together to sense and process signals. Identifying molecules that cooperate well with one another is difficult and makes development of new biological circuits a time-consuming and often unpredictable process.

The team at Wyss is now presenting an all-in-one solution that imbues a molecule of ribo nucleic acid or RNA with the capacity to sense multiple signals and make logical decisions to control protein production with high precision.

The studys approach resulted in a genetically encodable RNA nano-device that can perform an unprecedented 12-input logic operation to accurately regulate the expression of a fluorescent reporter protein in E. coli bacteria only when encountering a complex, user-prescribed profile of intra-cellular stimuli. Such programmable nano-devices may allow researchers to construct more sophisticated synthetic biological circuits, enabling them to analyze complex cellular environments efficiently and to respond accurately.

The teams approach evolved from its previous development of so-called Toehold Switches first published in 2014 which are programmable hairpin-like nano-structures made of RNA. In principle, RNA Toehold Switches can control the production of a specific protein: when a desired complementary trigger RNA, which can be part of the cells natural RNA repertoire, is present and binds to the toehold switch, the hairpin structure breaks open. Only then will the cells ribosomes get access to the RNA and produce the desired protein.

We wanted to take full advantage of the programmability of Toehold Switches and find a smart way to use them to expand the decision-making capabilities of living cells. Now with Ribocomputing Devices, we can couple protein production to specific combinations of many different input RNAs and only activate production when conditions allow it, said co-first and co-corresponding author Alexander Green, Ph.D. Green developed Toehold Switches with Yin and began the present study as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Yins team.

Illustration of an RNA-based ribocomputing device that makes logic-based decisions in living cells. The long gate RNA (blue) detects the binding of an input RNA (red). The ribosome (purple/mauve) reads the gate RNA to produce an output protein. (Source: Alexander Green / Arizona State University)

Green is now Assistant Professor at the Biodesign Institute and the School of Molecular Sciences at Arizona State University where he continued experiments with his graduate student and co-author Duo Ma.

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System Bits: Aug. 15 - SemiEngineering

Columbia researchers wired a single molecular cluster to gold electrodes to show that it exhibits a quantized and controllable flow of charge at room temperature. (Image courtesy of Bonnie Choi/Columbia University.)

A major goal in the field of molecular electronics, which aims to use single molecules as electronic components, is to make a device where a quantized, controllable flow of charge can be achieved at room temperature. A first step in this field is for researchers to demonstrate that single molecules can function as reproducible circuit elements such as transistors or diodes that can easily operate at room temperature.

A team led by Latha Venkataraman, professor of applied physics and chemistry at Columbia Engineering and Xavier Roy, assistant professor of chemistry, have published a study inNature Nanotechnologythat is the first to reproducibly demonstrate current blockadethe ability to switch a device from the insulating to the conducting state where charge is added and removed one electron at a timeusing atomically precise molecular clusters at room temperature.

Bonnie Choi, a graduate student in the Roy group and co-lead author of the work, created a single cluster of geometrically ordered atoms with an inorganic core made of just 14 atomsresulting in a diameter of approximately 0.5 nanometersand positioned linkers that wired the core to two gold electrodes, much as a resistor is soldered to two metal electrodes to form a macroscopic electrical circuit.

The researchers used a scanning tunneling microscope technique that they have pioneered to make junctions comprising a single cluster connected to the two gold electrodes, which enabled them to characterize its electrical response as they varied the applied bias voltage. The technique allows them to fabricate and measure thousands of junctions with reproducible transport characteristics.

"We found that these clusters can perform very well as room-temperature nanoscale diodes whose electrical response we can tailor by changing their chemical composition," said Venkataraman.

"Theoretically, a single atom is the smallest limit, but single-atom devices cannot be fabricated and stabilized at room temperature, Venkataraman added. With these molecular clusters, we have complete control over their structure with atomic precision and can change the elemental composition and structure in a controllable manner to elicit certain electrical response."

A number of studies have used quantum dots to produce the similar effects but because the dots are much larger and not uniform in size, due to the nature of their synthesis, the results have not been reproducible. The Venkataraman-Roy team worked with smaller inorganic molecular clusters that were identical in shape and size, so they knew exactlydown to the atomic scalewhat they were measuring.

"Most of the other studies created single-molecule devices that functioned as single-electron transistors at four degrees Kelvin, but for any real-world application, these devices need to work at room temperature. And ours do," said Giacomo Lovat, a postdoctoral researcher and co-lead author of the paper. "We've built a molecular-scale transistor with multiple states and functionalities, in which we have control over the precise amount of charge that flows through. It's fascinating to see that simple chemical changes within a molecule, can have a profound influence on the electronic structure of molecules, leading to different electrical properties."

Top: molecular structure of the Co6S8core as determined by SCXRD (blue, cobalt; yellow, sulfur). The core is a magnetic singlet (S=0) in the neutral state, a doublet (S=) in the 1+ state and a triplet (S=1) in the 2+ state. Bottom: structure of the molecular connector L used to wire the cluster into a junction. (Image courtesy of Bonnie Choi/Columbia University.)

Particularly interesting was the fact that these junctions were characterized by a "sequential" mode of charge flow; each electron transiting through a cluster junction stopped on the cluster for a while.

Usually, in small-molecule junctions, electrons "pushed" through the junction by the applied bias make the leap continuously, from one electrode into the other, so that the number of electrons on the molecule at each instant of time is not well-defined.

"We say the cluster becomes 'charged' since, for a short time interval before the transiting electron jumps off into the other metal electrode, it stores one extra charge," said Roy. "Such sequential, or discrete, conduction mode is due to the cluster's peculiar electronic structure that confines electrons in strongly localized orbitals.

These orbitals also account for the observed 'current blockade' regime when a low bias voltage is applied to a cluster junction, Roy continued. The current drops to a very small value at low voltage as electrons in the metal contact don't have enough energy to occupy one of the cluster orbitals. As the voltage is increased, the first cluster orbital that becomes energetically accessible opens up a viable route for electrons that can now jump on and off the cluster, resulting in consecutive 'charging' and 'discharging' events. The blockade is lifted, and current starts flowing across the junction."

The researchers tailored the clusters to explore the impact of compositional change on the clusters' electrical response and plan to build upon their initial study. They will design improved cluster systems with better electrical performances (e.g. higher on/off current ratio, different accessible states), and increase the number of atoms in the cluster core while maintaining the atomic precision and uniformity of the compound.

This would increase the number of energy levels, each corresponding to a certain electron orbit that they can access with their voltage window. Increasing the energy levels would impact the on/off ratio of the device, perhaps also decreasing the power needed for switching on the device if more energy levels become accessible for transiting electrons at low bias voltages.

"Most single-molecule transport investigations have been performed on simple organic molecules because they are easier to work with," Venkataraman noted. "Our collaborative effort here through the Columbia Nano Initiative bridges chemistry and physics, enabling us to experiment with new compounds, such as these molecular clusters, that may not only be more synthetically challenging, but also more interesting as electrical components."

For more transistor developments, check out this Transistor Controlled By Heat Signals.

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Single Molecules Act as Reproducible Transistors at Room Temperature - ENGINEERING.com

There is an emerging biotech movement that promises to transform medical science and radically overhaul the arduous process of bringing new drugs, foods and cosmetics to market.

Teams of academic and government researchers and a handful of start-ups have created human organs-on-chips miniaturized versions of livers, lungs, kidneys, intestines and other vital innards. The nascent science, now being evaluated by the FDA, offers a less time-consuming and costly way to test drugs, foods, cosmetics and dietary supplements for efficacy and toxicity, with the goal of vastly improving upon traditional cell culture and animal-based methods.

It sounds futuristic, but it's not sci-fi. Each organ-on-a-chip, roughly the size of a AA battery, is made from a flexible, translucent polymer. Inside are tiny tubes, each less than a millimeter in diameter, lined with living human cells extracted from a particular organ. When nutrients, air, blood and test compounds, such as experimental drugs or cosmetic ingredients, are pumped through the tubes, the cells replicate some of the key functions of that organ, just as they do in the body.

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Data published by FDAReview.org, a project of the nonpartisan Independent Institute, indicates that only about 1 in 10 drugs that enter clinical trials ultimately win Food and Drug Administration approval. According to the California Biomedical Research Association, it takes an average of 12 years for a drug to travel from preclinical research to the patient, at an average cost of $359 million. Do the math on the 90 percent of those drugs that don't make it and you can see the need for a revolutionary new approach.

"The current tools don't always give us the complete picture," said Geraldine Hamilton, president and chief scientific officer at Boston-based Emulate, a three-year-old private spin-off of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, a pioneer of organs-on-chips that has a multiyear R&D agreement with the FDA.

"When you put cells in a [petri] dish, they're in a static environment and don't interact with each other in the same way as they do in the body," she said, referring to a common preclinical first step. Tests on animal systems, Hamilton added, often do not accurately translate to those in humans, because of dissimilarities in our respective biologies.

Emulate has combined design, engineering and biology to recreate a dynamic microenvironment housed within its organ chips. "Think of the chip like a home away from home for an organ," Hamilton explained. "We can control the way cells interact with each other by applying relevant mechanical forces." For example, Emulate's lung chip can simulate breathing in and out. Blood and airflow are reproduced in the chip's tiny channels.

Besides increasing the speed and accuracy of drug testing, organs-on-chips present a range of game-changing potentials. They can be embedded with a particular disease, such as cancer or asthma, and provide researchers with a cost-effective mini laboratory for introducing immune cells or drugs and observing reactions in real time. It's also possible to grow separate chips of a human gut, a cow gut and an insect gut and then compare how each species' intestines react to a pesticide, an implausible experiment using those actual animals. Further down the road are you-on-a-chip models containing stem cells, a key component in so-called personalized medicine, and an entire human-on-a-chip, linking every organ together to study holistic interactions between cells and tissues.

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It sounds futuristic, but it's not sci-fi: Human organs-on-a-chip - CNBC

August 15, 2017 Credit: University of Nottingham

As electronic devices continue to shrink to meet the demand for pocket sized and wearable technology, scientists are working to develop the minute components that make them work and a team at the University of Nottingham have developed a new approach for the preparation of a coaxial cable around 50,000 times narrower than the width of a human hair.

This miniscule wire comprising a carbon nanotube located inside a boron nitride nanotube can be produced on a preparative scale and may represent an important step towards the miniaturisation of electronic devices.

The multi-national team of experts from the UK and Hungary, was jointly led by Andrei Khlobystov, a Professor of Nanomaterials and Director of the University of Nottingham's Nanoscale and Microscale Research Centre (nmRC), and Graham Rance, a Research Fellow in Nanomaterials Characterisation at the nmRC, who possess complementary expertise in the synthesis and characterisation of carbon nanomaterials. The study entitled 'Growth of carbon nanotubes inside boron nitride nanotubes by coalescence of fullerenes: toward the world's smallest coaxial cable' has been published in Small Methods, a new journal focused on cutting-edge developments in experimental approaches to the production of nano- and microscale materials.

Coaxial cables essential for the safe transport of electric current that power modern-day devices are typically made up of an inner conductor (usually copper) surrounded by an insulating plastic jacket. However, as consumer demand for smaller electronic devices increases, the limit to which these current materials can be used is rapidly being reached. Copper, for instance, is known to lose its high conductivity when scaled down to very small sizes and thus new materials are becomingly increasingly important.

Miniature wires

Carbon nanotubes are strong, lightweight and, most importantly, highly electrically conducting miniature wires, typically 1-5 nanometres in diameter, but up to centimetres in length, and are ideal for the core of an insulated nanoscale cable. Boron nitride nanotubes, whilst structurally similar to carbon nanotubes, by comparison are electrically insulating, perfect for surrounding the conducting core. The challenge was to arrange these two nanoscale materials one inside the other in the required co-axial geometry. This research has shown that by placing small, football-shaped, carbon-rich molecules (C60-fullerenes) inside boron nitride nanotubes and heating the resultant materials to very high temperatures (above 1000 oC), the fullerenes spontaneously transform into carbon nanotubes, leading to the formation of an electrically conducting carbon nanotube inside an electrically insulating boron nitride nanotube the world's smallest coaxial cable.

Professor Khlobystov said: "Currently most modern technologies are heavily dependent on the use of metals, some of which are becoming increasingly rare and costly. Therefore, there is a need to work towards replacing metals with more abundant and sustainable elements, such as carbon and other light elements. Our study demonstrates the principle of how nanoscale cables with conducting cores and insulating shells can be fabricated from simple ingredients. The next challenge is to test their electrical and mechanical properties to determine the scope of these materials for technological applications."

Broad ranging applications

Dr Rance said: "Our approach for the preparation of a miniaturised coaxial cable further explores the ability of hollow nanoscale tubules to control the formation of new and interesting nanostructures inside the inner cavity, some that cannot be prepared in any other way. On a fundamental level, this research is helping us to understand the behaviour of molecules when confined to very small spaces; however, on a more practical level, we anticipate this strategy will lead to the production of novel materials, with potentially broad ranging applications, from nanoscale electronics, to catalytic materials and in sensing devices."

The research was carried out by experts in synthetic and analytical chemistry, materials science and electron microscopy and builds the concept of carbon nano test tubes developed by Prof. Khlobystov (World's tiniest test tubes, Guinness Book of World Records 2005), where the nanotube acts simultaneously as a container for molecules and a reaction vessel for chemical transformations. His pioneering work on carbon nano-containers and nano-reactors continues to lead to new ways of directing molecular assembly and studying chemical reactions.

Professor Katalin Kamaras, Research Professor and expert in vibrational spectroscopy collaborated on the research, with her team working at the Wigner Research Centre for Physics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest. Professor Kamaras said: "My research group has been working on the spectroscopy of carbon nanostructures for a long time. Spectroscopy yields knowledge on the internal dynamics of the encapsulated molecules and can follow their transformations based on their physical properties. Through our collaboration with Prof. Khlobystov it became possible to "see" the structures we had only indirect information on. This joint research has the potential of opening new possibilities in both fundamental and applied materials science."

The UK research was performed at the state of the art Nanoscale and Microscale Research Centre (nmRC). The vision of the centre is to become a world-leading facility for the characterisation and analysis of molecular materials at the nano and microscale. With a unique suite of 20 major instruments the centre is staffed by experts with medical, scientific and engineering backgrounds. They are currently working on a wide range of research from cancer cells and 3-D printed medical implants to semiconductors and solar cells.

Explore further: Chemical reactions 'filmed' at the single-molecule level

More information: Kate E. Walker et al. Growth of Carbon Nanotubes inside Boron Nitride Nanotubes by Coalescence of Fullerenes: Toward the World's Smallest Coaxial Cable, Small Methods (2017). DOI: 10.1002/smtd.201700184

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Reactions in tiny containerstowards the world's smallest coaxial cable - Phys.Org

Self-collapse lithography The University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) has developed a technology called self-collapse lithography.

The technology, reported in the journal Nano Letters, resembles the combination of nanoimprint, selective removal and a chemical lift-off process. More specifically, though, the technology provides insights into patterning using a chemical lift-off lithography technique.

In the flow, researchers first devised a substrate. The substrate is patterned with conventional lithography techniques at feature sizes blow 30nm, according to UCLA. Then, a chemical composition is applied on the substrate. The chemical composition self assembles into a pattern formed by the original lithographic technique. This is called a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) process.

Following those events, an elastomeric stamp is applied to the SAM layer. The stamp is based on a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) material. The roof of the stamp collapses on the surface, according to UCLA. Then, the stamp is raised, which, in turn, selectively removes various SAM molecules on the surface. This is sometimes called a chemical lift-off process.

With the technology, researchers devised patterns from 2m to sub-30nm, according to UCLA. This is done by decreasing the stamp relief heights from 1m to 50nm, according to researchers

Molecular chips Columbia University has made a breakthrough in the field of molecular electronics.

Using a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) technique, researchers have deposited and formed a single cluster of geometrically ordered atoms. The cluster is made up of 14 atoms, which has a diameter of about 0.5nm.

Then, they wired the core atoms to two gold electrodes. This enabled researchers to characterize its electrical response by applying a voltage on the structure.

Columbia researchers wired a single molecular cluster to gold electrodes. (Photo courtesy of Bonnie Choi/Columbia University)

This, in turn, enabled researchers to demonstrate the so-called current blockade effect. This is the ability to switch a device from the insulating to the conducting state. We found that these clusters can perform very well as room-temperature nanoscale diodes whose electrical response we can tailor by changing their chemical composition, said Latha Venkataraman, a professor of applied physics and chemistry at Columbia. Theoretically, a single atom is the smallest limit, but single-atom devices cannot be fabricated and stabilized at room temperature. With these molecular clusters, we have complete control over their structure with atomic precision and can change the elemental composition and structure in a controllable manner to elicit certain electrical response.

Giacomo Lovat, a postdoctoral researcher, added: Most of the other studies created single-molecule devices that functioned as single-electron transistors at four degrees Kelvin, but for any real-world application, these devices need to work at room temperature. And ours do. Weve built a molecular-scale transistor with multiple states and functionalities, in which we have control over the precise amount of charge that flows through. Its fascinating to see that simple chemical changes within a molecule, can have a profound influence on the electronic structure of molecules, leading to different electrical properties.

Select dep blog A group has launched a new blog that provides the latest research into the world of atomic-level processing for IC manufacturing.

The site, called Atomic Limits, provides the latest on selective deposition, atomic layer etch (ALE) and other subjects. In one of its latest postings, the site reported the latest finding from the recent 2nd Area Selective Deposition workshop (ASD2017).

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Manufacturing Bits: Aug. 15 - SemiEngineering

UT students will help kids become interested about science this fall in the new TWINS Project, a collaboration between the Thinkery childrens museum and UTs Women in Natural Sciences program.

Students in the WINS program will have the opportunity to train in science education and outreach with Thinkery staff at the start of the fall semester. Trained students will then volunteer at Thinkerys community events, such as Chemistry Week, Engineers Day, Nano Day and summer camp for children.

I think its very important for kids to see women role models in the STEM field and for (students) to interact more with the community, WINS coordinator Elizabeth Morgan said. Having young kids connect to college students and especially women in science is really important.

Morgan said students previously volunteered at workshops during Thinkerys 2016 summer camp and helped children learn about outer space and space exploration by making solar systems.

We have found that WINS students are excited to share their knowledge and that, in turn, helps spread more excitement about learning and discovering, said Katie Kizziar, associate director of research and innovation at Thinkery.

This past July, the Association of American University Women awarded the WINS program a Community Action Grant to fund the collaboration. Sumaya Saati, an associate director of corporate and foundation relations for the College of Natural Sciences, said the association has not announced the total grant amount, but the funding will help pay for volunteer trainings and activity supplies.

With the nature of volunteerism, we think its free, but theres a lot behind the scenes that goes into it, Saati said. So supporting those types of roles is really important.

Kizziar said working with children at Thinkery will help UT students improve their confidence in public speaking and communicating science with the public.

Sharing sciences with the public is also a great way to inspire future scientists, Kizziar said. When we connect visitors with individuals who work in science, engineering, or art, they have a chance to put a human face to the topic.

Morgan said the collaboration will further the programs mission to recruit and support more women in science by helping current WINS students and inspiring young girls to study science.

Maybe one of the young girls at one of the community nights or events that we do will be really motivated about science, Morgan said. Maybe shell apply for WINS one day or move forward with something in science, engineering, or math.

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Female UT students in 'TWINS Project' will promote science at local children's museum - UT The Daily Texan

Semiconductor foundry CST Global is leading a UK government-funded project that could substantially reduce the cost of manufacturing high-speed laser diodes for next-generation fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) networks.

The market for passive optical networks (PON) is expanding rapidly as consumers upgrade their broadband connections to higher speeds. Indeed, this summer, CST Global said it had shipped more than 25million lasers into PON markets worldwide. To meet the insatiable demand for bandwidth, the next generation of PON lasers will need to be both higher speed and lower cost.

The 1.1million project, Diode Laser manufacturing process using Nano-imprint lithography (DiLaN), aims to establish a high-volume, commercially viable process for making distributed feedback (DFB) semiconductor lasers capable of 25Gb/s operation.

Our project addresses the replacement of a high-cost, nanometre-scale lithography step in the laser manufacturing process with a low-cost, high-throughput nano-imprint process to realise a cost saving of 20 to 30 per cent in the cost of manufacture of the laser chip, explained Andrew McKee, director of engineering at CST Global.

DFB lasers contain an integrated grating structure as the wavelength-selective element. The ultra-fine features in the gratings are usually created using electron-beam lithography, by directly writing the pattern into a photosensitive material that can be used as a mask for an etch process.

Nano-imprint lithography is an alternative method that can be used to pattern photoresist at 100nm feature sizes. The process is simple, according to McKee. A patterned stamp is pressed against the wafer to create patterns in the photosensitive resist, which are then transferred into the wafer.

This simplicity means that nano-imprint lithography tools are less expensive and the process is rapid. E-beam machines cost millions of dollars and the writing process can take hours; the large depreciation cost of the machinery results in high costs in the region of $2000 per wafer. In contrast, nano-imprint lithography costs could be as low as $200 per wafer, McKee claims.

Nano-imprint lithography is widely recognised as the most credible method of producing high throughput, high-resolution, singlemode semiconductor lasers at low cost, according to the project description. However, to our knowledge, the nano-imprint lithography technique has not been implemented in volume semiconductor laser manufacturing, and so there is significant de-risking activity required to establish, qualify and yield engineer a new process to unlock the productivity gains.

The UK industrial partners in this project are already significant materials and chip-scale suppliers to this market. CST Global is the project leader, supported by academic partners Cardiff and Swansea Universities and commercial partner Compound Semiconductor Centre (CSC) in Cardiff.

Now open for business, the CSC is a joint venture between IQE, a leading supplier of compound semiconductor wafer products and Cardiff University (see Cardiff cluster to commercialise compound semiconductor research). The CSC is intended to be Europe's first prototyping facility, creating a more rapid route to market for compound semiconductor based technologies.

The DiLaN project grant is valued at 821,319. Funding is provided by Innovate UK, a UK government research funding agency for engineering and the physical sciences. The DiLaN project runs from February 2017 to January 2019.

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CST Global leads 1.1M project to slash cost of FTTP lasers - Fibre Systems

These young people participated in Engineering Camp Pembroke at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke from July 24 to Aug. 4. N.C. State is a partner in the camp.

Forty-two students participated in Engineering Camp Pembroke. They were introduced to various fields of engineering, from structural to mechanical.

PEMBROKE Thirteen-year-old Lauren Gerber and her teammates scaled two flights of stairs to a balcony adjoining the Givens Performing Arts Center.

Lauren exuded confidence.

She trusted her teams design of a contraption made to protect an egg would remain intact after being tossed off the two-story ledge. The homemade box pounded the concrete, causing a loud thud. Campers below scrambled to open the box, eager to see if the egg survived.

Not a scratch.

The feat notched another win for Laurens team during Engineering Camp Pembroke at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke. The camp ran from July 24 to Aug. 4 and was among several camps held at UNCP this summer.

I loved all the activities, but the egg drop was my favorite, said Gerber, who attends Prospect School.

She proudly revealed the winning design, which also survived a toss from the Mary Livermore Library.

We placed the egg inside a zip lock bag and placed the bag into a cardboard box, she said. We cut out a hole in a pool noodle, big enough for the egg to fit inside then stuffed the box with napkins and more pieces from the pool noodle. I cut more pieces of the pool noodle and taped it to the outsider corners of the box.

This type of ingenuity is an example of skills participants tapped into during the camp. UNC Pembroke partnered with the N.C. State College of Engineering and the Engineering Place to offer a week-long experience for elementary and middle school students.

Mary Beth Locklear, director of the Office for Regional Initiatives that sponsored the camp, served as one of the lead teachers.

To see the discovery and excitement on the kids faces this week has been empowering, Locklear said.

The participants will leave this camp with a broader imagination and creative problem solving skills. They will be able to look at the world in a different way and hopefully make it a better place for their communities.

Forty-two students participated in Engineering Camp Pembroke. They were introduced to various fields of engineering, from structural to mechanical.

Engineering Camp Pembroke is a tremendous opportunity for area elementary and middle school students to learn more about science and engineering, and engage in some really cool projects along the way, said Jeff Frederick, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

UNCP currently offers a 3-plus-2 dual degree engineering program with N.C. State University. Laura Bottomley, director of the Engineering Place and Women in Engineering, made the trip to Pembroke and sat in on the elementary sessions.

As part of our expanded STEM offerings and engineering partnership programs with NC State, UNCP is a place where science comes alive for students of all ages, Frederick said.

Eleven-year-old Rylan Oxendine is an aspiring engineer. He wants to design prosthetics for military veterans who return home with injuries. He enjoyed the bungee cord challenge and fabricating a chair using only newspaper and masking tape.

This camp has taught me a lot, Oxendine said. The excitement that you get from designing something with your team its awesome.

Other activities included building a nano bug maze to simulate a dog park and designing shoes fit for walking upstairs and jumping.

Chavonda Brown, another lead teacher, said the goal was to spark the students interest in various types of engineering fields.

We focused a lot on design, she said. We emphasized that before they could get their materials they must show us their design.

Bladdon Hammonds, 12, lives on a farm near Prospect and has dreams of becoming a veterinarian. But after a week at Engineering Camp Pembroke, he is on the fence.

I might change my mind, he said. I like the teachers here. They let us work in groups and we got to talk a lot with the ones on our team. Its been a lot of fun.

These young people participated in Engineering Camp Pembroke at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke from July 24 to Aug. 4. N.C. State is a partner in the camp.

http://www.robesonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/web1_stem1201781211134313.jpgThese young people participated in Engineering Camp Pembroke at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke from July 24 to Aug. 4. N.C. State is a partner in the camp.

Forty-two students participated in Engineering Camp Pembroke. They were introduced to various fields of engineering, from structural to mechanical.

http://www.robesonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/web1_stem2201781211158473.jpgForty-two students participated in Engineering Camp Pembroke. They were introduced to various fields of engineering, from structural to mechanical.

Mark Locklear is a Public Relations specialist for The University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

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UNCP camp puts aspiring engineers to work - The Robesonian

Mission almost complete.

For over a year, more than 100 students in Irvine have focused on Irvine01, a mission to engineer and launch a nano-satellite into orbit.

Last month, they entered the projects final phase at Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Inc. in Irvine, which involved integrating their satellite, known as the CubeSat, into a dispenser that will attach to a launch vehicle and send the device into space.

As part of the Irvine CubeSat STEM program, the students are attempting the first successful high school-based CubeSat launch on the West Coast, according to a news release.

While its in orbit, the 10-centimeter-by-10-centimeter cube will be capable of taking photos and sending communications to the students. Its equipped with pieces such as a small camera and solar panels.

After suiting up in white lab coats and hair nets, a few students on the project worked alongside Tyvak engineers during the launch integration last month to strategically place the cube into the rectangular-shaped dispenser.

The dispenser will be sent to India, where the cube will be launched later this year.

Scott Smeltzer / Daily Pilot

Vidur Kaushish, a mission manager at Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Inc., places a CubeSat, or nano-satellite, into a dispenser on July 26.

Vidur Kaushish, a mission manager at Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Inc., places a CubeSat, or nano-satellite, into a dispenser on July 26. (Scott Smeltzer / Daily Pilot)

Each of the high schools in the program Beckman, Woodbridge, Northwood, Irvine and University had a team that worked on a different aspect of the cubes mission with the guidance of industry mentors.

As a student, it can be a bit scary to work with a professional, said Irvine student Mehr Bawa. Ive learned that sometimes we wont find the answers through the problems, but its all about working as a team and being able to solve those problems together.

Students at Beckman the only participating school from Tustin Unified School District handled the cubes electronics and sensor suite, which includes the GPS navigation.

Woodbridge students focused on radio operations and how data and communication can flow from the cube while in orbit.

Northwood students offered their talents to the solar panel and lithium battery functions while Irvine students put their knowledge to use on the propulsion system.

Students from University were in charge of the frame for the satellite and the government paperwork needed to launch the device into orbit.

Scott Smeltzer / Daily Pilot

Austin Kruggel, left, and Vidur Kaushish, employees of Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Inc., place a CubeSat, or nano-satellite, into a dispenser on July 26.

Austin Kruggel, left, and Vidur Kaushish, employees of Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Inc., place a CubeSat, or nano-satellite, into a dispenser on July 26. (Scott Smeltzer / Daily Pilot)

Between the collaboration with different people, I was mostly on the paperwork side of the team and as a 15-year-old, thats huge, University student Jessica Lin said. I had a lot of exposure to the science community that I didnt know about beforehand.

Portola High School in Irvine, which opened last year, will be involved in the next mission of the program called Irvine02, which will have one of the 34 small satellites selected nationwide to participate in NASAs CubeSat Launch Initiative to fly on an upcoming NASA-sponsored mission, according to a news release.

The kids see each other as real colleagues, said University math and engineering teacher Archana Jain. Getting to this point of integration is huge. We expected the students to do well and they exceed our expectations one million percent.

In addition to bringing the satellite to the Tyvak campus last month, the students also displayed a model of the cube, with the inside revealing different colored wires and layers of circuit boards and the outside showing sleek solar panels lining its sides.

Scott Smeltzer / Daily Pilot

Morgan Kopecky, 16, left, and Sarah Shimizu, 15, talk about the communications system for the CubeSat on July 26.

Morgan Kopecky, 16, left, and Sarah Shimizu, 15, talk about the communications system for the CubeSat on July 26. (Scott Smeltzer / Daily Pilot)

The idea for the Irvine CubeSat program came about between mechanical engineer Brent Freeze and data scientist Kevin Sosa, who are both Irvine residents.

We wanted to do something big in STEM that was city-wide, Freeze said.

The two approached the Irvine Public Schools Foundation, which provided $150,000 in seed funding for the first mission, plus a commitment to raise funds and administer the program yearly.

Were hoping to expand to different school districts so that even more students have an opportunity to go through this as well, Sosa said. A lot of STEM programs have a focus on robotics and programming. The main purpose for us is to create a program with an interest in space.

Alexandra.Chan@latimes.com

Twitter: @AlexandraChan10

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Irvine students enter final phase of their mission to launch a satellite - Los Angeles Times

Video Researchers at Ohio State University have developed a nanochip contact patch that can reprogram nearby cells, to help repair damaged or aging organs, blood vessels, or nerve cells.

The bio-boffins have successfully used the device, which is about the size of a smartwatch screen, to turn skin cells into vascular cells in a mouse's damaged leg, which lacked blood flow. A week later, active blood vessels had grown in the mouse's leg and two weeks later, the leg's health had been restored.

The researchers also reprogrammed skin cells to become nerve cells, so they could be injected into mice with brain damage to help them recover from the equivalent of a stroke.

The technology, referred to as tissue nano-transfection (TNT), is described in a paper published on Monday in Nature Nanotechnology, "Topical tissue nano-transfection mediates non-viral stroma reprogramming and rescue."

TNT has two components: a nanotechnology-based chip capable of delivering a payload to adult cells in a live subject and a biological cargo of specific proteins or genetic material that initiate cell conversion. Reprogramming relies on techniques involving induced neurons and endothelium.

Dr Chandan Sen, director of Ohio State's Center for Regenerative Medicine & Cell Based Therapies, is one of the 27 co-authors of the research paper and a co-leader of the study, along with L James Lee, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering with Ohio State's College of Engineering.

Sen in a statement said the technology has reached the point where it is working successfully 98per cent of the time. "With this technology, we can convert skin cells into elements of any organ with just one touch," he said. "This process only takes less than a second and is non-invasive, and then you're off."

A video produced by OSU's Wexner Medical Center, and embedded below, demonstrates the process. The chip is placed on an injured part of the body and a small electrical current is applied, shooting genetic code into the cells. In less than a second, cells in the area receive new marching orders and start functioning in their new role.

Youtube Video

"The chip does not stay with you, and the reprogramming of the cell starts," said Sen. "Our technology keeps the cells in the body under immune surveillance, so immune suppression is not necessary."

Human clinical trials are planned for next year.

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Watch this nanochip reprogram cells to fix damaged body tissue - The Register

Zebrafish (Danio rerio) are widely used as a model organism for developmental biology. But after being frozen and thawed, zebrafish embryos rarely survive, meaning that researchers can only do experiments on live ones and cant store embryos for later experiments or to share with other labs.

Now, researchers report that injecting zebrafish embryos with gold nanorods can improve their viability when thawed, offering the possibility of long-term storage. With further development, the technique could also serve as a tool for the conservation of endangered species (ACS Nano 2017, DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.7b02216).

The work is very creative, says Mehmet Toner of Harvard Medical School, who was not involved with the study. Zebrafish are a very important molecular biology tool, and the embryos are extremely difficult to cryopreserve, but this technique could make it cost effective and practical for many laboratories.

During freezing and thawing, intracellular liquids can form needlelike ice crystals that pierce cell membranes and kill cells. Injecting cryoprotective chemicals that prevent ice crystal formation can help. But another problem is that when cells warm up unevenly, as when embryos are thawed in a water bath, intracellular proteins get scrambled, explains Nilay Chakraborty of the University of Michigan, Dearborn, who was not involved with the research. Think of it as having an oven that doesnt heat well, so some parts are undercooked and others are burnt.

Changing temperatures quickly and evenly throughout the entire volume of the embryo is crucial. This is feasible for small mammalian embryos but difficult for zebrafish, whose embryos are approximately seven times as large as human ones.

Looking for a solution, John C. Bischof of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and his colleagues injected a combination of propylene glycol, which acts as a biocompatible antifreeze, and gold nanoparticles into zebrafish embryos before freezing them in liquid nitrogen. After a few minutes, the team thawed the embryos with a millisecond pulse from a laser. The gold nanoparticles absorbed this energy and warmed the embryos quickly and evenly, at a rate faster than ice crystals could form. One hour after warming, 31% of the embryos were viable. They continued to develop normally for a day and were twitching their tails, not appearing to suffer any toxic effects. In contrast, a set of embryos frozen with the nanorods but warmed conventionally using a water bath did not survive thawing.

The laser-heated embryos still died after about 24 hours and did not develop into full-grown adults. But for now, the current technology could still prove useful for research, says Chakraborty. It depends on what the end goal is: Do you want a swimming zebrafish or to look at a particular proteins expression during early embryonic development?

Refining the technique so that the animals can grow to adulthood might help conservation efforts for certain endangered species that have large, hard-to-freeze embryos, including amphibians, birds, and reptiles. This is a platform that can be applied across species, Bischof says.

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Frozen fish embryos warm up better with nanorods - The Biological SCENE

LONDON, Aug.8, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Nano Positioning Systems Market: Overview

Nanopositioning and the nano measuring machines are being used for the purpose of three-dimensional coordination measurement in a range of (25 mm x 25 mm x 5 mm) having a resolution around 0.1 nm. It has got unique sensor arrangement which provides Abbe error-free measurement on all of the three coordinate axes. Measurement axes of the 3 miniature plane mirror interferometer for the length measurement intersect virtually with a contact point of a probe sensor having measuring object at a single point.

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Global Nano Positioning Systems Market: Drivers and Restraints

Nano positioning has got major applications in positioning, manipulation, measurement and processing of the objects in the field of microelectronics, micromechanics, molecular biology, optics and microsystem engineering with the nanometric precision within the large range. Thus, the rise in demand for active vibration damping, structural health monitoring, micro thrusters and rotary positioning in aerospace industry is expected to create growth opportunities for nano positioning system manufacturers during the forecast period. The nano positioning systems market is expected to expand steadily over the forecast period. With technological advancement in optoelectronics and microscopy segment with higher adoption of piezos are fueling the growth of the nano positioning systems market.

Global Nano Positioning Systems Market: Segmentation

Based on sensor type, the market has been segmented into four types which include capacitive, piezoresistive, piezoelectric and others. Piezoelectric sensor held the largest market share in terms of sensor type, followed by piezoresistive and capacitive sensor .Piezoelectric sensors depends on piezoelectric effect which is required to measure the plethora of different parameters like strain, pressure and force by, converting them into voltages. But piezoelectric sensor mostly operates purely as sensor and not in reverse mode, by applying voltage to generate the effect.

The growing demand of piezo sensors and piezo actuators in optics and aerospace is actually driving the market. Piezoelectric sensors are a kind of electromechanical component which exhibits close to zero deflection. Resulting to that, they used to respond across a high-frequency bandwidth and exhibits consistent linearity over the wide amplitude ranges.

The growing adoption of piezoelectric sensors and piezoresistive sensor in advance positioning system and advanced force microscopy is expected to drive the market in the forecasted period. Based on actuator type, the market is segmented into five segments which include mems-based electrostatic, magneto- strictive, electromagnetic, piezo and others.

By application the market has been segmented into six segments which includes optics & photonics, R&D, microscopy, advance positioning system, aerospace and others Geographically, the nano positioning systems market is categorized into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and Africa. The market for Nano Positioning Systems has been provided in (USD million) in terms of revenue and the CAGR for the forecast period of 2017 to 2025.

Global Nano Positioning Systems Market: Competitive Landscape

The key players in the nano positioning systems market have been competitively profiled across the five broad geographic regions. This competitive landscape is inclusive of the various business strategies adopted by these major players and their recent developments in the field of Nanopositioning. Further, the report includes the market attractiveness analysis of different deployment of nano positioning and insight into the major application area of the nano positioning system.

The report also provides assessment of different drivers that is impacting the global market, along with the restraints and opportunities that has also been covered under the scope of this report. For each segment (such as sensor type, actuator type, applications), market dynamics analysis has been provided. All these factors help in determining different trends that has been impacting the overall market growth. Moreover, after taking into consideration all this factors, an extensive analysis of the region wise growth parameters of Nano Positioning Systems market along with the overall assessment for the forecast period of 2017-2025 has also been provided within this report.

Some of the leading players who are operating in the market are like Physik Instrumente (PI) GmbH & Co.(Germany), , Prior Scientific Instruments (U.K.), Aerotech Inc. (The U.S.),Cedrat Technologies (France), OME Technology Co. Ltd. (Taiwan), Dynamic Structures and Materials, LLC (The U.S.), SmarAct GmbH (Germany), OWIS GmbH (Germany) and Mad City Labs, Inc. (The U.S.) among others.

The Nano Positioning Systems market has been segmented as follows:

Global Nano Positioning Systems Market, by Sensor Type Capacitive Sensor Piezoresistive Sensor Piezoelectric Sensor Others

Global Nano Positioning Systems Market, by Actuator Type MEMS-based electrostatic Actuator Magneto- Strictive Actuator Electromagnetic Actuator Piezo Actuator Others

Nano Positioning Systems Market by Application Optics & Photonics R&D Microscopy Advance Positioning System Aerospace Others

Global Nano Positioning Systems Market, by Region North America The U.S Canada Mexico Europe U.K Germany France Italy Rest of Europe Asia Pacific China Japan Korea India Rest of APAC Middle East and Africa U.A.E Saudi Arabia South Africa Rest of MEA Latin America Brazil Argentina Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5027966/

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Nano Positioning Systems Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025 - PR Newswire (press release)

Triad Business Journal

UNC-Greensboro, N.C. A&T State University launch I-Corps ... Triad Business Journal Two universities in Greensboro have received a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to set up a program to support local entrepreneurs in the ... and more »

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UNC-Greensboro, N.C. A&T State University launch I-Corps ... - Triad Business Journal

8/07/2017 05:15:00 PM

EDMONTON, Alberta, Canada, Aug. 7, 2017 Eleven Engineering, Inc. (www.elevenengineering.com), a market leader in semiconductor products for wireless audio for home theater, multi-room, outdoor, portable, professional, 12 Volt (car, truck, motorcycle, power sports, marine) and gaming applications, is proud to announce that Henry Brausen has joined the companys design engineering team in its Edmonton corporate offices, effective immediately.

As we continue to expand upon our SKAA technologies and products offerings, we needed to add to our design engineering team to keep up with worldwide demand, said Sam Cristall, Eleven Engineering - Director R&D. Henry has the qualities, education, and experience in wireless and software development that we are looking for to help us grow. We are pleased to have Henry on board.

Brausen has years of software development experience, and is a graduate of the University of Alberta with a Master of Science degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Microsystems and Nanodevices, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Physics and Nanoengineering.

This is a very impressive time for Eleven Engineering, and I am looking forward to working with the design engineering team, said Brausen who, as design engineer, will report to Cristall. Company growth along with SKAAs quick jump to an industry standard has launched Eleven to the forefront of wireless technologies across numerous CE markets. Being part of this process is very exciting.

SKAA (www.SKAA.com) is the new wireless HiFi audio standard developed by Eleven Engineering, Inc. SKAA transmitters work with iOS & Android mobile devices, Mac & Windows computers, televisions, and just about any product with a line output or a headphone jack. SKAA is also available as a built-in technology not requiring an external transmitter in purpose-designed partner products, which are featured at SKAA.com. SKAA navigates hostile environments saturated in wireless traffic with best-in-class reliability, and delivers uninterrupted audio with the highest sound quality to all speakers without the latency that is inherent in other wireless solutions.

For more information, contact Rex Whitehead at 480-650-3979 or email whitehead@eleveneng.com. For more information on Eleven Engineering, visit http://www.SKAA.com and http://www.elevenengineering.com.

About Eleven Engineering, Inc.

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada-based Eleven Engineering, Inc. is a market leader in microprocessors SiPs (System in Package) and modules designed for wireless audio for Home Theater, Multi-Room, Portable, and Pro Audio products. Eleven's XInC2 multithreaded processor was designed specifically for digital wireless audio applications but is also well suited for other realtime intensive microprocessor applications.

Eleven's high-performance wireless audio semiconductors, equipped with XInC2 wireless processor cores, are complete solutions for high-quality digital wireless audio transport. WFD, Eleven's proprietary wireless audio transport protocol, has a narrow footprint in the radio spectrum, delivering both best-in-class coexistence with WiFi / Bluetooth and unparalleled Quality of Service.

# # #

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Eleven Engineering Adds Henry Brausen to Design Engineering Team - Twice

Design and nanomanufacturing have collided inside of a Northwestern University laboratory.

An interdisciplinary team of researchers has used mathematics and machine learning to design an optimal material for light management in solar cells, then fabricated the nanostructured surfaces simultaneously with a new nanomanufacturing technique.

We have bridged the gap between design and nanomanufacturing, said Wei Chen, the Wilson-Cook Professor in Engineering Design and professor of mechanical engineering in Northwesterns McCormick School of Engineering, who led the studys design component. Instead of designing a structure element by element, we are now designing and optimizing it with a simple mathematic function and fabricating it at the same time.

The fast, highly scalable, streamlined method could replace cumbersome trial-and-error nanomanufacturing and design methods, which often take vast resources to complete.

The concurrent design and processing of nanostructures paves the way to avoid trial-and-error manufacturing, increasing the cost effectiveness to prototype nanophotonic devices, said Teri Odom, Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Chemistry in Northwesterns Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and leader of the studys nanofabrication component.

Researchers are currently interested in nanophotonic materials for light absorption in ultra-thin, flexible solar cells. The same principle could also be applied to implement color into clothing without dyes and to create anti-wet surfaces. For solar cells, the ideal nanostructure surface features quasi-random structures meaning the structures appear random but do have a pattern. Designing these patterns can be difficult and time consuming, since there are thousands of geometric variables that must be optimized simultaneously to discover the optimal surface pattern to absorb the most light.

It is a very tedious job to fabricate the optimal design, Chen said. You could use nano-lithography, which is similar to 3D printing, but it takes days and thousands of dollars just to print a little square. Thats not practical.

To bypass the issues of nano-lithography, Odom and Chen manufactured the quasi-random structures with wrinkle lithography, a new nanomanufacturing technique that can rapidly transfer wrinkle patterns into different materials to realize a nearly unlimited number of quasi-random nanostructures. Formed by applying strain to a substrate, wrinkling is a simple method for the scalable fabrication of nanoscale surface structures.

Importantly, the complex geometries can be described computationally with only three parameters instead of thousands typically required by other approaches, Odom said. We then used the digital designs in an iterative search loop to determine the optimal nanowrinkles for a desired outcome.

Supported by the National Science Foundation and Office of Naval Research, the research was published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Won-Kyu Lee, a PhD student in Odoms laboratory, served as the papers first author. Shuangcheng Yu, a PhD student who recently graduated from Chens Integrated Design Automation Laboratory (IDEAL), served as the papers second author. Lee and Yu contributed equally to the work.

The team demonstrated the concurrent design and manufacturing method to fabricate 3D photonic nanostructures on a silicon wafer for potential use as a solar cell. The resulting material absorbed 160 percent more light in the 800 to 1,200 nanometer wavelength a range in which current solar cells are less efficient than other designs.

Light wavelengths have different frequencies, and we did not design for just one frequency, Chen said. We designed for the whole spectrum of sunlight frequencies, so the solar cell can absorb light over broadband wavelengths and over a wide collection of angles.

Next, the team plans to apply its method to other materials, such as polymers, metals, and oxides, for other photonics applications.

Original by: Amanda Morris

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Simultaneous Design and Nanomanufacturing Speeds Up Fabrication - I-Connect007

Indian Institute of Science researchers have developed a highly sensitive nanometre-scale carbon monoxide sensor by employing an innovative fabrication technique. It is known that carbon monoxide (CO) can have adverse effects on the health of people exposed to it. Hence, it becomes necessary to have good, low-cost carbon-monoxide sensors. The research is published in Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical.

Right size

Typically, a sensor would be a thin, current carrying plate whose resistance changes on exposure to carbon monoxide. This in turn changes the value of the current flowing through it. This change when measured indicates the level of carbon monoxide in the air. Most available sensors are in the micrometer range, a nanometer-sized detector would have a higher sensitivity, but the cost of manufacturing it goes up as the size decreases. This is where the work of C.S. Prajapati and coworkers of Indian Institute of Science comes in.

To build this zinc-oxide (ZnO) nanostructure on a silicon wafer substrate, the researchers first placed tiny polystyrene beads on the wafer. These beads arrange themselves into what is called a hexagonal close-packed structure on the oxidised silicon wafer.

Maintaining a reasonable level of vacuum, a high voltage is applied which etches away the surfaces of the beads until a gap of desired thickness is formed between adjacent beads. Then zinc oxide is deposited on the system.

This occupies the spaces between the beads, forming a honeycomb like nano-mesh that can function as a nanosenor.

Scaling down from 10 micrometer feature size to 10 nanometer feature (used in this work) can enhance the efficiency 1,000 times. However, the development cost of nanostructured gas sensors using existing lithography tools is really very high, which eventually impacts the overall cost of the device, explains Navakanta Bhat, Chair and Professor, Centre for Nano Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, an author of the paper, in an email to The Hindu.

This device is also easy to scale for mass production. Nanostructure-based gas sensors are very promising in their performance due their high surface-to-volume ratio. The existing techniques to create honeycomb nanostructures using photolithography and e-beam lithography are expensive and time-consuming. The proposed technique can potentially reduce the cost by more than 50%, says Prof. Bhat.

Smart cities

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has a vision of deploying such sensors in large scale for pollution monitoring in large cities like Delhi and Bengaluru. For instance, if the sensors are installed in all traffic intersections, we can do real time mapping of pollution hot-spots in a city. This would be an enabler in realizing smart cities, says Prof. Bhat.

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Low-cost, sensitive CO sensor from IISc - The Hindu

August 2, 2017 (Source) Dr. Stephen Campbell, Principal Scientist at Nano One Materials (TSXV: NNO) (FSE: LBMB) (OTC Pink: NNOMF), today announced that Nano One has filed a patent related to yield improvements in its process for the manufacture of lithium metal oxide cathode materials for use in advanced lithium ion batteries.

The process improvements in this patent application have been demonstrated in the lab. Extrapolating the lab results, Nano One anticipates a 100-fold increase in the material throughput of its core technology at the reactor stage of the process. Specifically, the throughput of the existing pilot reactor could be increased from 10 kg/day, as initially conceived, to as high as 1400 kg/day. This yield is in line with current commercial production rates of cathode materials ranging from 1,000 to 10,000 kg/day. The remaining process steps are readily scalable to support the design of a full-scale plant. From industry reports, Nano One estimates that the global addressable market for cathode materials is approximately 500,000 kg/day.

These innovations move our pilot sized reactor into the range of full scale production, explained Dr. Campbell, and demonstrate a clear path to a 10,000 kg/day plant. The resulting reduction in capital expenses lowers the barrier to commercial adoption and makes Nano Ones technology even more attractive to industrial interests. It builds on innovations announced earlier and marks our fifth patent application since this time last year.

Nano One has been testing productivity concepts for some time in the lab. The pilot was designed and built to accommodate these concepts and demonstration of the elevated throughputs is expected this year. The technology was developed under a collaboration agreement between Nano One, NORAM Engineering and Constructors Ltd and BC Research Inc. Under the agreement, Nano One is assigned right, title and interest in arising intellectual property and accordingly a patent application has been filed with the U.S. Patent Office.

Nano One CEO Dan Blondal said that The throughput of our pilot reactor is significantly more compelling than originally anticipated and we look forward to discussing the reduced cost implications with a growing network of commercial interests. Wed like to acknowledge the team at Nano One for their dedication and know-how throughout the pilot program and thank NORAM and BC Research for their engineering expertise and innovations.

Nano One would also like to thank Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada for their ongoing support of the pilot plant project and these technology developments through both Sustainable Development Technology Canada and the Automotive Suppliers Innovation Program.

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Nano One Materials Corp.

Dan Blondal, CEO

About Nano One:

Nano One Materials Corp (Nano One or the Company) is developing patented technology for the low-cost production of high performance battery materials used in electric vehicles, energy storage and consumer electronics. The processing technology addresses fundamental supply chain constraints by enabling wider raw materials specifications for use in lithium ion batteries. The process can be configured for a range of different nanostructured materials and has the flexibility to shift with emerging and future battery market trends and a diverse range of other growth opportunities. The novel three-stage process uses equipment common to industry and Nano One is building a pilot plant to demonstrate high volume production. The pilot plant is being funded with the assistance and support of the Government of Canada through Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) and the Automotive Supplier Innovation Program (ASIP). Nano One also receives financial support from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP). Nano Ones mission is to establish its patented technology as a leading platform for the global production of a new generation of nanostructured composite materials. For more information, please visit http://www.nanoone.ca

About NORAM and BC Research

NORAM Engineering and Constructors Ltd. and their subsidiary, BC Research Inc., supply proprietary engineering and equipment packages to the chemical, pulp and paper, minerals processing and electrochemical sectors. They are recognized worldwide as a leader in the fields of nitration, sulfuric acid and electrochemistry. In addition to carrying out large assignments for major multi-national clients, NORAM and BC Research work with early-stage technology companies. They provide engineering design and fabrication support, sharing their experience in technology commercialization, and growing with companies as a strategic partner.

Certain information contained herein may constitute forward-looking information under Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, the execution of the Companys plans which are contingent on the receipt of grant monies and the commercialization of the Companys technology and patents. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as believe, expect, anticipate, plan, intend, continue, estimate, may, will, should, ongoing, or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results will occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made and they are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, including: the ability of the Company to obtain additional financing; including the receipt of grant monies from SDTC, ASIP, NRC-IRAP and the receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals. Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information that is incorporated by reference herein, except as required by applicable securities laws.

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS NEWS RELEASE

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Nano One Enhances Pilot Productivity and Files a New Patent - InvestorIntel

3D printing at the nanoscale isnt new, but its applications are still being discovered. When the process, known as two-photon lithography, first began making headlines, many of the demonstrations involved the fabrication of aesthetic models: microscopic race cars, space shuttles and even ancient Roman sculptures.

However, researchers have also been applying the technology to the field of medicine. So far, the results have been somewhat limited, from a mechanical standpoint. For instance, one team has coated the tips of 3D-printed sharks in iron in order to guide their movements with magnetic fields. Other groups have worked on developing new geometries that can be beneficial in increasing the surface area of drugs used in targeted delivery.

A team led by Roberto Di Leonardo was able to fabricate micromotors powered by E. coli bacteria. (Image courtesy of Nature Communications.)

These studies do demonstrate the potential for nanotechnology in some applications, but, in some ways, the objects printed are the same aesthetic objects with some added medical superpowers. Mechanically, there have been few examples of true micromachinery. That is, until Roberto Di Leonardo, a physics professor at Sapienza Universit di Roma and at NANOTEC-CNR in Rome, developed a series of micromotors, which are powered by bacteria and ordinary LED light.

In the experiment conducted by Di Leonardos team, you can see the beginning of what could be the future of micromachines, including a series of 36 micromotors rotating in unison.

The main idea for the experiment comes from the observation that using modern tools of nanotechnology and microfabrication, we are becoming better and better at fabricating at thobjectse microscale, Di Leonardo told ENGINEERING.com."[Using 3D printing], we can build any shape, but its much more difficult to bring these structures to life by building motors and actuators. Were not as good at building micromotors, especially if we want these micromotors to be autonomous.

Di Leonardos lab actually constructed its own two-photon lithography system, which uses a high-powered laser to direct two photons of near-infrared light in ultrashort pulses at a photocurable resin. Unlike commercial nano 3D printing systems, like those from Nanoscribe, Di Leonardos team introduced a special modulator to the setup, making it possible to split the beam so that it can selectively cure multiple areas in parallel. This essentially makes it possible to 3D print the same object en masse, as was the case with the 36 motors printed in his study.

3D printing is not the only technology that can be used to create microscopic assemblies; it just happens to have the benefit of being able to produce fully assembled systems, such as the motors demonstrated in this study. Unlike other forms of 3D printing, two-photon polymerization has the benefit of 3D printing objects in a semisolid resin, making it possible to create complete assemblies. However, Di Leonardo said that there are other tools for assembly, including holographic optical tweezers, that make it possible to manipulate tiny objects with laser light.

3D printing the micromotors was not necessarily the hard part of the endeavor. The more difficult task for Di Leonardos group was powering the motors that were to be printed. To do so, he turned to one of natures existing micromachines: bacteria. The idea is that can we can use bacteria as tiny propellers to actuate micromachines, Di Leonardo said. The force generated by bacteria, however, is intermittent, which would cause the motors to spin for only about a minute at a time and some rotors to spin in the opposite direction.

To harness the swimming of E. coli bacteriawhich Di Leonardo described as the hydrogen atom of biology because it has been so extensively studiedthe team constructed microscopic motors that had 15 microchambers along their edges, with each chamber containing room for only one bacteria. As tiny organisms, bacteria have their own swimming patterns and behavior, so the researchers also built tiny ramps that herded them into these chambers.

The idea was that, once these E. coli were guided into the chambers, tilted at the 45 necessary to maximize torque and their flagellum (tails) whipping outside of the chambers, the bacterias natural swimming would push the individual rotors.

In figures a and b, you can see the motors design. Red represents the ramps that guide the bacteria into the chambers of the rotor, represented in green, which spins along an axis, represented in blue. In c and d, you can see scanning electron images of the micromotors. In d, you can see a close-up of the chambers as they were actually fabricated. (Image courtesy of Nature Communications.)

About the ability to herd and control the bacteria, Di Leonardo said, We actually werent sure that this would work. You may think that its not going to be easy for a single cell to find its way through a little hole. We were prepared for it to take a long time for these chambers around the rotating part to fill with bacteria.

After the implementation of the ramps, however, he said the process was surprisingly successful. In less than two minutes, the structures were completely loaded and all the chambers were occupied by bacteria. The process was surprisingly more efficient and reproducible than what we were expecting. Thats something that doesnt happen very often in science, Di Leonardo added.

The researchers also wanted to be able to control the motion of the micromotors. This was managed by genetically engineering the E. coli to express proteorhodopsin, a proton pump that causes protons to be pushed against an electrochemical gradient. Once the micromotors were exposed to light, the team could turn the motors off and on and regulate their speed. Using a feedback algorithm that lights up the system every 10 seconds, Di Leonardos group was further able to cause the motors to move in unison.

The use of light to control the movement of the bacteria provides significant benefits. As one might imagine, the use of power supply or magnetic fields is expensive and would not be easy to build. Moreover, the use of magnetic fields, for instance, would limit the complexity of the machines design. Di Leonardo explained that incorporating additional functionality into a structures design, such as creating gears that move at different speeds, would be difficult.

On the other hand, bacteria are computing machines, Di Leonardo explained. They can be used not just for producing propulsion, but theres a lot more that you can do with bacteria, just by exploiting the internal biological machinery. You can make them respond to different types of signals from the environment.

For example, Di Leonardo said that its possible to engineer two species of bacteria that are sensitive to different colors, such as red and green, and that actuate different parts of a device. When a red LED is lit, only those bacteria will respond and vice versa.

What Di Leonardo is working on next is the ability to create structures with more degrees of freedom, such as microscopic shuttles that can be steered and accelerated. The team also plans to address multiple structures at the same time by projecting a unique light pattern. Were moving in that direction, implementing more degrees of freedom which are independently controllable using light patterns, which are modulated in space and time, he said.

When it comes to practical applications for the technology, Di Leonardo said that biology and medicine are the first areas that come to mind. When you work at the microscale, your close neighbor is biology because the basic unit of life is the cell, he explained. Although the practical applications are still some ways off, he does believe that early applications may include the creation of tiny, disposable robots that can collect cells and sort individual cells in a blood sample for analysis and diagnosis.

And then, who knows? continued Di Leonardo. This is just the beginning, and theres still a lot to do from a technical point of view. In order to reach a nanotech future, Di Leonardo explained that typically independent researchers from different fields, such as physics, engineering and biology, will need to come together. Only then will society be able to reap the benefits of nanotechnology.

Here is the original post:

Herding Bacteria Brings Power to 3D-Printed Micromotors - ENGINEERING.com

The announcements coming out of Nano One Materials Corp. (TSXV: NNO) (Nano One) just keep getting bigger; not only has the company secured yet more key patents, but their pilot plant processes have been improved to the extent that it is now thought to be capable of output on a commercial scale. The companys patented process is able to chemically manufacture materials at the nanoscale which are suitable for the production of cathode units used in lithium ion batteries, a market poised for massive growth over the next ten years as the world moves ever closer to full adoption of electric vehicles.

Specifically, Nano One have worked with Noram Engineering on a series of process improvements that, in the lab, have prompted anticipation of a 100-fold increase to the material throughput of the reactor. This means that the production rate of the existing pilot reactor could be increased from the planned 10 kg/day to as high as 1,400 kg/day. Current commercial production rates for these materials vary from 1,000 to 10,000 kg/day, and moving into this range represents a massive leap forward for the team as well as a significant reduction to capital expenses.

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Demonstration of the new throughput benchmark is expected later this year, and should it be successful, the company can expect commercial adoption of their lithium products to happen very quickly indeed. If nothing else, the recent improvements show that Nano One are more than capable of creating a full-scale plant that can produce 10,000 kg/day of refined product. Crucially, the companys nanoscale production technology eliminates a multitude of steps from the refinement process, as well as doing away with the tailings that milling and acid leach operations must normally dispose of responsibly and at considerable expense.

According to industry reports, the global market for battery cathode materials is around 500,000 kg/day at present, and this is only going to increase as more and more developing economies adopt technologies that require energy storage solutions. In the developed world, the move away from combustion engines is expected to create such explosive demand for batteries that the mining world has gone completely lithium crazy over the last ten years, and the guys at Nano One promise to disrupt this space entirely by assembling better quality materials cheaper, in less time and with almost no waste products.

At the beginning of July, the company was awarded yet another patent relating to their lithium battery cathode production tech, expanding Nano Ones proprietary position to include the improvements in battery performance provided by the lithium ion cathode materials produced. Batteries produced using this process are far more robust than units produced using current methods, lasting 2-3 times longer. Additionally, these new batteries would store more energy and deliver more power as a result of the finer structure achieved in the cathodes produced using this method.

The repeated good news over the past year had caused a few serious jumps in the companys share price, and I really feel that this may be the final opportunity to get in on the action before Nano One goes big-league. The ability to cater to a booming market in a way that nobody else can is too good an opportunity to pass up, and the development of commercial scale processing means that shares wont be trading at only C$1.10 for very long.

Originally posted here:

Commercial Scale Lithium Production In Sight For Nano One Materials - InvestorIntel