Computers and similar electronic devices have gotten faster and smaller over the decades as computer-chip makers have learned how to shrink individual transistors, the tiny electrical switches that convey digital information. Scientists’ pursuit of the smallest possible transistor has allowed more of them to be packed onto each chip. But that race to the bottom […]
Heat-Conducting Crystals Could Help Computer Chips Keep Their Cool
If your laptop or cell phone starts to feel warm after playing hours of video games or running too many apps at one time, those devices are actually doing their job. Whisking heat away from the circuitry in a computer’s innards to the outside environment is critical: Overheated computer chips can make programs run slower […]
Team’s E-Whiskers May Be A Touchstone For Future Of Electronic Skin
Those cute little whiskers you see on your pet do more than just twitch adorably. The long, protruding hairs are actually touch receptors, sending vital information about the surroundings to the brain and helping the animals make sense of their environment. Intrigued by the hairs’ versatility, University of Texas at Dallas researchers used shape-memory polymers to […]
New Material May Help Cut Battery Costs For Electric Cars, Cellphones
In the battle of the batteries, lithium-ion technology is the reigning champion, powering that cellphone in your pocket as well as an increasing number of electric vehicles on the road. But a novel manganese and sodium-ion-based material developed at The University of Texas at Dallas, in collaboration with Seoul National University, might become a contender, […]
Engineers Shrink Microscope to Dime-Sized Device
Researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas have created an atomic force microscope on a chip, dramatically shrinking the size — and, hopefully, the price tag — of a high-tech device commonly used to characterize material properties. “A standard atomic force microscope is a large, bulky instrument, with multiple control loops, electronics and amplifiers,” […]
Bioengineers’ Sweat Sensor Monitors Glucose
Researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas are sweating the small stuff in their efforts to develop a wearable device that can monitor an individual’s glucose level via perspiration on the skin. In a study recently published online in the journal Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, Dr. Shalini Prasad, professor of bioengineering in the Erik […]
Robot Control Theory Applied to Improve Prosthetic Legs
A University of Texas at Dallas professor applied robot control theory to enable powered prosthetics to dynamically respond to the wearer’s environment and help amputees walk. In research available online and in an upcoming print issue of IEEE Transactions on Robotics, wearers of the robotic leg could walk on a moving treadmill almost as fast […]
New Tech May Lead to Prolonged Power in Smartphones
Researchers from The University of Texas at Dallas have created technology that could be the first step toward wearable computers with self-contained power sources or, more immediately, a smartphone that doesn’t die after a few hours of heavy use. This technology, published online in Nature Communications, taps into the power of a single electron to […]