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Electronics

Latest Innovations
High Resolution Distributed Sensor Inventors from the University of Illinois have developed novel phase-separated optical fibers for use in a distributed sensor. These phase-separated optical fibers have... Read More Inventors from the University of Illinois have developed novel phase-separated optical fibers for use in a distributed sensor. These phase-separated optical fibers have high loss (0.05 to 5 dB/m @ 1550 nm) when compared with conventional optical fibers, and the loss dominated by Rayleigh scattering. Moreover, these phase separated fibers are produced through a molten core method (MCM) which makes the cost of production relatively low when compared with conventional fibers. When employed in a Rayleigh based distributed sensor these phase-separated optical fibers provide short-range sensitivity that is orders of magnitude greater than conventional fibers.
Energy Efficient Nanoscale Capacitor Dr. Alexey Bezryadin, with his research group, has developed a dielectric capacitor that provides 200 J/g of storage density. By injecting and trapping charges within a... Read More Dr. Alexey Bezryadin, with his research group, has developed a dielectric capacitor that provides 200 J/g of storage density. By injecting and trapping charges within a thin dielectric layer, a Coulomb barrier is created that prevents leakage currents that cause capacitors to discharge more quickly. Initial applications for the technology are in cold electronics, which could include quantum computing, space technologies, infrared cameras, or MRI machines.
Improved Method for Fabricating a S-RuM Inductor with High Q This is a new method for fabricating a self-rolled-up membrane (S-RuM) membrane. The invention allows for the fabrication of high-quality-factor milliTesla- and Tesla-... Read More This is a new method for fabricating a self-rolled-up membrane (S-RuM) membrane. The invention allows for the fabrication of high-quality-factor milliTesla- and Tesla-level inductors for high density circuit applications and allows for the precise tuning of the inductor performance by varying the space between subsequent turns (coils), which affects the thickness of the conducting layers within the inductor. Importantly, this method provides tunable three-dimensional inductors with a reduced footprint when compared with conventional planar inductors.
Defect Resistant Red LEDs Standard red LEDs suffer from rapid degradation and low efficiency, which becomes increasingly poor at smaller dimensions. Dr. Lee’s novel LED design integrates InP... Read More Standard red LEDs suffer from rapid degradation and low efficiency, which becomes increasingly poor at smaller dimensions. Dr. Lee’s novel LED design integrates InP quantum dots to overcome the deleterious sidewall recombination that reduces the performance of conventional red LEDs. This technology dramatically increases the defect tolerance of red LEDs, with devices showing comparable performance when grown on a range of surfaces including GaAs and GaAs/Si.
Eliminating Oxygen Vacancies in Thin-Film Metal Oxides through a Liquid Environment Dr. Seebauer from the University of Illinois has developed a method to eliminate oxygen vacancy defects in thin-film metal oxides. The novel method of a liquid environment... Read More Dr. Seebauer from the University of Illinois has developed a method to eliminate oxygen vacancy defects in thin-film metal oxides. The novel method of a liquid environment enables the improvement of these materials without involving a normally difficult manufacturing process. The process enables the control of oxygen vacancies to a certain depth and density. The removal of the defect allows for the metal oxide thin-film to have better photocatalytic properties. This could be useful for sensors and power devices which are a quickly growing market. The filled vacancies also affect subsequent redox reactions by inhibiting the transfer of electrons.
A Method for the Heterogeneous Integration of III-Nitride-based Materials for the Development of Optoelectronic Devices Professor Dallesassee and coworkers from the University of Illinois has developed a method for the heterogeneous integration of III-Nitride materials on various... Read More Professor Dallesassee and coworkers from the University of Illinois has developed a method for the heterogeneous integration of III-Nitride materials on various non-native substrates. This method uses a carrier wafer for the fabrication of the III-Nitride devices, which are then transferred to a host wafer and eutectically bonded. The method takes advantage of current tooling and allows for the fabrication of optoelectronic devices embedded into a CMOS platform for full electronic controls on a common substrate, such as silicon. These technique overcomes many of the limitations currently associated with the integration of III-Nitride materials such as their sub-par thermal performance, and the high costs associated with the handling and alignment of the III-Nitride devices onto the substrate.
A Piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducer Using Thin-Film Lithium Niobate Professor Songbin Gong and researchers from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering have developed a design strategy and method for fabricating efficient... Read More Professor Songbin Gong and researchers from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering have developed a design strategy and method for fabricating efficient piezoelectric micro-machined ultrasonic transducer (pMUT) optimizing both ultrasonic transmitter and receiver performance in a combined platform. Currently, there are two leading material types for pMUTs : ferroelectric perovskites with solid solutions containing PbTiO3, like PZT and PMN-PT (primarily used as transducers ) and the non-ferroelectric structures such as AlN (primarily used as sensors). This balanced ultrasonic transceiver can be implemented in miniature ultrasound applications, specifically in consumer electronics for gesture recognition, biometric sensing and occupancy sensing.
Miniature Mercury Lamp Researchers from the University of Illinois, along with their collaborators at Eden Park Illumination, have developed a new miniaturized lamp for uses in atomic clocks and... Read More Researchers from the University of Illinois, along with their collaborators at Eden Park Illumination, have developed a new miniaturized lamp for uses in atomic clocks and environmental sensors. These atomic clocks are highly useful in autonomous vehicles due to the precision and accuracy they provide. While most lamps use direct electron impact, this new lamp takes advantage of atomic excitation transfer to increase the efficiency of the lamp. This process reduces the size, and therefore the cost, of producing the lamp. Utilizing smaller lamps will allow for atomic clocks to be more easily integrated into commercial vehicles. Several iterations of the Hg+ lamp have been tested and can be made as small as 0.25 cm3.
Property-driven Automatic Generation of Reduced-ISA Hardware Dr. Rakesh Kumar and his team have developed a new system and tool to analyze logic circuits and find opportunity to automatically optimize them. This technology... Read More Dr. Rakesh Kumar and his team have developed a new system and tool to analyze logic circuits and find opportunity to automatically optimize them. This technology automatically identifies unused instructions from microprocessors that an application is guaranteed not to exercise, eliminates these components and optimizes the design to reduce their cost, area and power requirement. This system uses a combination of techniques that differ from prior methods and leads to improved results. Instead of adding instructions to a specific design, it automatically removed unused ones and generates enhanced hardware from arbitrary designs.
Ultra-flexible 2D Heterostructures for MEMS and Optoelectronic Applications Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed ultra-flexible heterostructures made from 2D layers of van der Waals bonded materials. The heterostructures retain... Read More Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed ultra-flexible heterostructures made from 2D layers of van der Waals bonded materials. The heterostructures retain the optoelectronic properties of their constituent layers, but offer tunable mechanical properties which can include flexibility rivaling that of lipid bilayers. Applications for this technology include MEMS devices and flexible, stretchable, and conformal circuitry, including reconfigurable 2D devices and folded/curved/crumpled nanostructures.

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