Archive for the ‘Polymer’ Category.
September 26, 2011
A recent type of computer memory could potentially be faster than existing commercial technologies and it may use less electricity when compared to flash devices. Purdue University researchers have combined a ferroelectric polymer with silicon nanowires. Several organizations have focused on nanowires in order to maintain the pace of Moore’s Law. PVDF-TrFE is the chained molecule and this compound can change its polarity when they apply an electric field. The ability to alter its orientation lets it encode binary. The property enables it to act as a switch that can move between a one and a zero. They call this contraption a ferroelectric transistor random access memory or FeTRAM for short. This work is located in the August issue of the journal “Nano Letters”, which is published by the American Chemical Society. They have already constructed a prototype circuit with the part. These fundamental pieces can help to build fresh processor architecture designs. Read More »
September 12, 2011
Scientists from the US Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have used a nanoimprinting technique to increase the performance of solar cells. The imprinter is one of the more promising fabrication technologies that have come about. It is a cost effective tool and enables the production of uniform wafers in a single patterning step. A variety of fields such as microfluidic, biochemical and telecommunications could take advantage of the technology. Polymers are long chained molecules and some of them have the capability of converting light into electricity. Attaining a finer control over these thin film materials has been a major goal for the organic photovoltaic industry. The nanotechnology imprinting process uses a template etched with 100 nanometer spaced grooves. This can stamp the compound poly-3(hexylthiophene) (also known as P3HT) in order to alter its orientation and morphology. All of this happens as they heat the chemicals to 150 degrees Celsius. The scientists showed a high fidelity of the pattern transfer using the technology. It induced a polymer backbone alignment along the grooves of the imprinter. The 50-nanometer spaces correspond to a width of only 100 molecules. Read More »
August 16, 2011
Robots or nanodevices of the future may have mechanical segments replaced with softer parts that mimic what can be found in nature. This will enable the machines to have a much wider range of behaviors than what is currently possible. Researchers are developing new tools to create an array of flexible biomimetics. A conference is taking place a little over a month from now and will discuss progress towards the goals of more versatile robotics. Many of these advances could be used to create care-taker bots that can look after people who are older. Bio-compatible actuators may also facilitate improved human cybernetic interfaces or remote controllable insects. Read More »
A recent type of computer memory could potentially be faster than existing commercial technologies and it may use less electricity when compared to flash devices. Purdue University researchers have combined a ferroelectric polymer with silicon nanowires. Several organizations have focused on nanowires in order to maintain the pace of Moore’s Law. PVDF-TrFE is the chained molecule and this compound can change its polarity when they apply an electric field. The ability to alter its orientation lets it encode binary. The property enables it to act as a switch that can move between a one and a zero. They call this contraption a ferroelectric transistor random access memory or FeTRAM for short. This work is located in the August issue of the journal “Nano Letters”, which is published by the American Chemical Society. They have already constructed a prototype circuit with the part. These fundamental pieces can help to build fresh processor architecture designs. Read More »
