Electronics

In this photograph of fabric, you can see the green light of functional fibers. “No human-made objects are more ubiquitous or exposed to more vital data than the clothes we all wear,” says doctoral student Gabriel Locke. “Wouldn’t it be great if we could somehow teach our fabrics to sense, store, analyze, extract and communicate this potentially useful information?”

3 Questions: The rapidly unfolding future of smart fabrics

Soon, your clothes may be able to monitor your vital signs, analyze the results, and warn you of health risks.

May 8, 2020

In this illustration, two sheets of graphene are stacked together at a slightly offset “magic” angle, which can become either an insulator or superconductor. “We placed one sheet of graphene on top of another, similar to placing plastic wrap on top of plastic wrap,” MIT professor Pablo Jarillo-Herrero says. “You would expect there would be wrinkles, and regions where the two sheets would...

Researchers map tiny twists in “magic-angle” graphene

Results could help designers engineer high-temperature superconductors and quantum computing devices.

May 7, 2020

Dirty carbon reveals a sophisticated side

Coal could someday be used to make a variety of useful devices, researchers suggest.

April 27, 2020

“We can have any commercially available electronic parts embedded within the textiles that we wear every day, creating conformable garments,” says Canan Dagdeviren, the LG Electronics Career Development Assistant Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT.

Sensors woven into a shirt can monitor vital signs

Comfortable, form-fitting garments could be used to remotely track patients’ health.

April 23, 2020

Professor Rob MacFarlane is a professor of materials science and engineering at MIT.

3Q: Robert Macfarlane on cleaning your smartphone screen

Materials scientist explores why some household cleaners could harm the protective coating on a smartphone screen.

April 13, 2020

MIT postdoc Michael Wessely shows off the SprayableTech prototype.

Sprayable user interfaces

CSAIL's SprayableTech system lets users create large-scale interactive surfaces with sensors and displays using airbrushed inks.

April 8, 2020

MIT researchers have 3-D-printed soft electronically active polymers into a number of devices, including a pliable neural electrode, and (shown here) a flexible circuit.

Engineers 3D print soft, rubbery brain implants

Technique may enable speedy, on-demand design of softer, safer neural devices.

March 30, 2020

CurveBoards are 3D breadboards — which are commonly used to prototype circuits — that can be designed by custom software, 3D printed, and directly integrated into the surface of physical objects, such as smart watches, bracelets, helmets, headphones, and even flexible electronics. CurveBoards can give designers an additional prototyping technique to better evaluate how circuits will look and f...

Integrating electronics onto physical prototypes

In place of flat “breadboards,” 3D-printed CurveBoards enable easier testing of circuit design on electronics products.

March 3, 2020

MIT researchers’ millimeter-sized ID chip integrates a cryptographic processor, an antenna array that transmits data in the high terahertz range, and photovoltaic diodes for power.

Cryptographic “tag of everything” could protect the supply chain

Tiny, battery-free ID chip can authenticate nearly any product to help combat losses to counterfeiting.

February 20, 2020

With a new technique, MIT researchers can peel and stack thin films of metal oxides — chemical compounds that can be designed to have unique magnetic and electronic properties. The films can be mixed and matched to create multi-functional, flexible electronic devices, such as solar-powered skins and electronic fabrics.

Engineers mix and match materials to make new stretchy electronics

Next-generation devices made with new “peel and stack” method may include electronic chips worn on the skin.

February 5, 2020

MIT researchers have discovered a method to predict and control the length of tunnels in solid germanium by laterally growing it over silicon oxide strips (shown in yellow) on top of silicon (green), depicted from left to right. Germanium, shown in purple, smoothly covers the silicon but forms voids and tunnels (lighter shade of purple) where germanium and silicon oxide meet. The voids and tunnels...

A new facet for germanium

MIT researchers grow perfectly shaped germanium tunnels on silicon oxide with controllable length.

January 31, 2020

Fikile Brushett is the Cecil and Ida Green Career Development Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering.

Powering the planet

Fikile Brushett and his team are designing electrochemical technology to secure the planet’s energy future.

January 29, 2020

Left to right: MARC committee members and MIT graduate students Navid Abedzadeh, Mayuran Saravanapavanantham, Haozhe Wang, Elaine McVay, Qingyun Xie, Jatin Patil, Jessica Boles, Rachel Yang, and Rishabh Mittal.

MIT graduate students lead conference on microsystems and nanotechnology

Student committee puts together research showcase while balancing coursework, qualifying exams, and extracurriculars.

January 22, 2020

Researchers from MIT, Google, and elsewhere have designed a novel method for verifying when quantum processors have accurately performed complex computations that classical computers can’t. They validate their method on a custom system (pictured) that’s able to capture how accurately a photonic chip (“PNP”) computed a notoriously difficult quantum problem.

How to verify that quantum chips are computing correctly

A new method determines whether circuits are accurately executing complex operations that classical computers can’t tackle.

January 13, 2020

This illustration shows the characteristic “sheriff star”-type pattern of the Fermi surface, or distribution of electron energy and momentum, for the kagome metal FeSn, a 1-to-1 ratio compound of iron and tin.

MIT researchers realize “ideal” kagome metal electronic structure

Newly synthesized compound of iron and tin atoms in 1-to-1 ratio displays unique behavior.

December 12, 2019

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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