TERMINAL

A research team at the University of California recently made a significant development in the field of bioelectronics. They developed a technology that converts human body motions from bending an elbow to subtle movements such as a pulse on one’s wrist into electricity that could be used to power wearables, implantable and sensors.

The researchers discovered that the magnetoelastic effect, which is the change of how much a material is magnetized when tiny magnets are constantly pushed together and pulled apart by mechanical pressure, can exist in a soft and flexible system not only in rigid systems.This change in magnetization can be used to develop an emf.

The magnetoelastic effect is the variation of the magnetic field of a material under mechanical stress.It is usually observed in rigid metal alloys such as TbxDy1-xFe2 (Terfenol-D) and GaxFe1-x (Galfenol), with an externally applied magnetic field.

The team of scientists came up with a method to incorporate magnetoelastic properties into a soft and flexible material. A microscopic magnetoelastic generator (MEG) made of a platinum-catalyzed silicone polymer matrix and neodymium-iron-boron nanomagnets was used.It generates a magnetic field that changes in strength.This was fixed onto a person’s elbow with a soft, stretchy silicone band. The magnetoelastic effect they observed was four times greater than similar setups with rigid metal alloys. The polymer converts mechanical stress to localized magnetic field variation, which could be further utilized to generate electricity when coupled with magnetic induction. Thus, a soft MEG was developed with a giant magneto-mechanical coupling (GMMC) layer and a magnetic induction (MI) layer.Magnetic field variation can pass through the water without a significant decrease in intensity, thus making it waterproof. These findings open up a new avenue for more practical technologies. Scientists all over are looking forward to use this technology in implanted devices, bio sensors etc

-Crystal Bejoy

5G is the 5th generation mobile network. It is a new global wireless standard after 1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G networks. 5G enables a new kind of network that is designed to connect virtually everyone and everything together including machines, objects, and devices. 5G wireless technology is meant to deliver higher multi-Gbps peak data speeds, ultra low latency, more reliability, massive network capacity, increased availability, and a more uniform user experience to more users. Higher performance and improved efficiency empower new user experiences and connects new industries.

The spectrum for 5G services not only covers bands below 6 GHz, including bands currently used for 4G LTE networks, but also extends into much higher frequency bands not previously considered for mobile communications. It is the use of frequency bands in the 24 GHz to 100 GHz range, known as millimeter wave (mmWave). Although the mmWave bands extend all the way up 300 GHz, it is the bands from 24 GHz up to 100 GHz that are expected to be used for 5G. The mmWave bands up to 100 GHz are capable of supporting bandwidths up to 2 GHz, without the need to aggregate bands together for higher data throughput.

As 5G mm Wave starts to be deployed in low-cost, small cell networks using massive MIMO antennas to deliver as much as 20 Gbps download rates to users, the immense promise of 5G will become apparent. At that point, there is likely to be an explosion in the number of new applications and deployment scenarios that exploit the new technology.

-Aishwarya S Menon

Augmented reality overlays digital content and information onto the physical world — as if they’re actually there with you, in your own space. It modifies your current environment by incorporating sounds, visual and sensory stimuli and opens up new ways for your devices to be helpful throughout your day by letting you experience digital content in the same way you experience the world.

Augmented reality(ar) is different from the virtual reality(vr) that we know of. Where ar uses a real world setting vr is completely virtual. Ar enhances the real world by superimposing the virtual world onto the real one that we live in, making us see the virtual images or content right in front of us,whereas vr is completely a fictional reality. For vr we need accessories like a headset device, ar can be accessed by a mere smartphone.

Just open up your camera and you can see images and icons and a lot more right in your own space on your screen.

The applications of Ar are far and wide.

Live google maps: launch your camera and the pointers and directions appear on your screen exactly where they are meant to be.

Ar can be used for placing objects in your real world. For example before you buy a couch you can use Ar to virtually place the couch in your living room and see on your screen how it complements your space.

In short Ar takes your reality and adds the virtual content and makes it a seemingly better reality.

-Sneha Shaji

Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are nanoscale material clusters composed of 102–105 atoms. The size of the QDs is orders of magnitude larger than a typical atomic radius, yet small enough to provide quantum confinement of electrons and holes in all three spatial dimensions.

Consequently, they are also referred to as artificial atoms.The use of semiconductors such as silicon gallium arsenide sparked technologies from computers and mobile phones to lasers and satellites. Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) offer an additional lever A unique property of the semiconductor QDs is that the energies and wave functions of the quantum confined states can be tailored by controlling their size, shape, and composition.

Their tunable surface chemistry allows application as optical labels in bio-imaging, made possible by tethering QDs with proteins and antibodies

The manipulation of QD surfaces with capping molecules that have different chemical and physical functions can be tailored to program their assembly into semiconducting solids, increasing conductivity and enabling the transduction of photonic and chemical stimuli into electrical signals.

Highly crystalline QDs can be grown epitaxially on judiciously chosen substrates by using high-temperature and vacuum conditions, and their use has led to commercially viable high-performance lasers.

The advent of colloidal QDs, which can be fabricated and processed in solution at mild conditions, enabled large-area manufacturing and widened the scope of QD application to markets such as consumer electronics and photovoltaics.

-Jubel Benny

The organic molecule benzene had puzzled a significant percentage of the scientific community during the 19th century. The true nature of the molecule remained a mystery until Friedrich August Kekulé propounded that the six carbon atoms in a molecule of benzene were arranged in a circular manner. This discovery paved the path towards the massive expansion of the chemical industry.

Now in the 21st century, researchers have begun to study the use of benzene and its polymers in modern electronics. The researchers from the Kekulé Institute and the Mulliken Center for Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Bonn, together with a team led by Prof. John Lupton from the Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics at the University of Regensburg have created a molecular "ladder" using hundreds of benzene molecules.

This ladder has two tracks of so-called "conjugated polymers", in which double and single bonds alternate between the carbon atoms and they make up the rails that you would hold on to when climbing up an ordinary ladder.

The ladder structure is retained when the molecules are placed on a surface and also when dissolved in a liquid according to Prof. Lupton. It was noticed that the energy packets moved virtually unimpeded across the ladder. This feature would allow seamless energy flow along the molecule in space, providing a potential building block for optical networks, circuits and sensors.

-Jonathan C George