A new generation of high speed, silicon-based information technology has been brought a step closer by researchers in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at UCL and the London Centre for Nanotechnology. The team’s research, published in Nature Photonics journal, provides the first demonstration of an electrically driven, quantum dot laser grown directly on a silicon substrate (Si) with a wavelength (1300-nm) suitable for use in telecommunications. (more…)
*Scientists Build the First Wafer-Scale Graphene Integrated Circuit Smaller than a Pinhead*
Yorktown Heights, NY – 10 Jun 2011: Today, IBM Research scientists announced that they have achieved a milestone in creating a building block for the future of wireless devices. In a paper published yesterday in the magazine Science, IBM researchers announced the first integrated circuit fabricated from wafer-size graphene, and demonstrated a broadband frequency mixer operating at frequencies up to 10 gigahertz (10 billion cycles/second).
Designed for wireless communications, this graphene-based analog integrated circuit could improve today’s wireless devices and points to the potential for a new set of appli-cations. At today’s conventional frequencies, cell phone and transceiver signals could be improved, potentially allowing phones to work where they can’t today while, at much higher frequencies, military and medical personnel could see concealed weapons or conduct medical imaging without the same radiation dangers of X-rays. (more…)
A new study finds that the general public thinks getting a suntan poses a greater public health risk than nanotechnology or other nanoparticle applications. The study, from North Carolina State University, compared survey respondents’ perceived risk of nanoparticles with 23 other public-health risks.
The study is the first to compare the public’s perception of the risks associated with nanoparticles to other environmental and health safety risks. Researchers found that nanoparticles are perceived as being a relatively low risk. (more…)
Argonne, ILL— For the first time scientists have been able to watch nanoparticles grow from the earliest stages of their formation. Nanoparticles are the foundation of nanotechnology and their performance depends on their structure, composition, and size. Researchers will now be able to develop ways to control conditions under which they are grown. The breakthrough will affect a wide range of applications including solar-cell technology and chemical and biological sensors. The research is published in NANOLetters.
As coauthor Wenge Yang of the Carnegie Institution’s Geophysical Laboratory explained: “It’s been very difficult to watch these tiny particles be born and grow in the past because traditional techniques require that the sample be in a vacuum and many nanoparticles are grown in a metal-conducting liquid. So we have not been able to see how different conditions affect the particles, much less understand how we can tweak the conditions to get a desired effect.” (more…)
*National Science Foundation awards more than $12.5M to study societal impacts of emerging technologies*
The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently renewed two important cooperative agreements totaling more than $12.5 million over five years. These awards leverage previous investments for studying the ethical, legal, economic and policy implications of the relatively new, nature-altering science called nanotechnology. (more…)
WARSAW, Poland & WROCLAW, Poland – 29 Jul 2010: IBM Poland (NYSE: IBM) and the Wroclaw University of Technology today announced an agreement to establish the first university cloud computing center in Poland. As part of the partnership, the Wroclaw University of Technology will create a new academic curriculum, making cloud-focused courses available to more than 1500 students.
One nanometer equals one billionth or 10-9 of a meter. A very tiny unit of length. Nanotechnology is a multidisciplinary field of applied sciences where scientists are trying to understand matter on atomic or molecular scale, a very fine level. Most probably the ultimate quantum level. The aim is to develop devices within that tiny […]
