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Electronics

Latest Innovations
Stretchable and Flexible Optoelectronics from Crumpled Two-Dimensional Material Heterostructures Researchers from the University of Illinois have developed a platform for stretchable + flexible optoelectronics that offer consistent performance in stretched vs. non-... Read More Researchers from the University of Illinois have developed a platform for stretchable + flexible optoelectronics that offer consistent performance in stretched vs. non-stretched mode. The platform, which features stacked layers of two-dimensional materials that are crumpled or wrinkled, can enable new designs and manufacturing methodologies for devices that offer both toughness and malleability at scales as small as nanometers.
3D Multi-stack Nanowire and Nanosheet High Electron Mobility Transistors via Ultra-Wide Bandgap (UWBG) Materials Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a three-dimensional high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) architecture that utilizes ultra-wide bandgap (UWBG)... Read More Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a three-dimensional high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) architecture that utilizes ultra-wide bandgap (UWBG) materials. These structures and devices can be used for high-power, high-frequency applications, where they can confer an order of magnitude higher performance than wide bandgap (WBG) devices, including simultaneously achieving 10x higher power density while operating at frequencies as high as 120 GHz.
DiAG A new processor architecture that increases speedup and decreases energy consumption Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed a processor architecture that allows for greater efficiency in computing power and energy... Read More Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed a processor architecture that allows for greater efficiency in computing power and energy consumption. The architecture exploits parallelism through thread pipelining and an out-of-order loop system. This process is possible by utilizing more processing elements in the system. This method does create extra cost and is essentially a cost for efficiency trade-off. The system can be used in a variety of embedded systems such as CPUs and GPUs. The decrease in energy consumption can also be applied to servers and other large processing units that consumer a lot of energy and in the process and lot of heat.
Direct Printing of Ultra-Stretchable Supercapacitors A promising direct printing method that combines new materials for hybrid, ultra-stretchable supercapacitors. Supercapacitors can quickly discharge making them ideal for... Read More A promising direct printing method that combines new materials for hybrid, ultra-stretchable supercapacitors. Supercapacitors can quickly discharge making them ideal for applications such as electric vehicles, ships and trains. These novel materials are lighter weight and have the potential perform better than current supercapacitor technology. These combination of materials can be fabricated in a wide array of shapes and sizes, including thin films and fibers; increasing their electrochemical and mechanical properties such as better electrical conductivity, capacity and durability.
Simultaneous Imaging of Polarized and Visible Light Using a Single Chip Capturing polarized and visible light simultaneously is usually achieved by either rotating filters that reduce frame rate and need a static image or using an array of... Read More Capturing polarized and visible light simultaneously is usually achieved by either rotating filters that reduce frame rate and need a static image or using an array of sensors that must be aligned and can be bulkily and expensive. These issues are solved by Dr. Viktor Gruev's invention of a single chip that can detect both kinds of light simultaneously with high resolution and in real time. This sensor can detect 12 bands of visible light and 3 bands of polarized light. Because data is gathered in real time and does not require rotating filters, this sensor has applications in military surveillance, particularly in hazy conditions such as fog or underwater where polarized imaging can reduce background scattering information. Additionally, this sensor can be used in image-guided surgery, such as tumor removal used in combination with injected dyes that bind to cancerous cells that respond to different kinds of light.
A Wearable Metasurface for Efficient, Omnidirectional Wireless Power Transfer Wireless charging at a distance can be time consuming and inefficient in real-world applications, including for embedded devices such as electronic medical implants.... Read More Wireless charging at a distance can be time consuming and inefficient in real-world applications, including for embedded devices such as electronic medical implants. University of Illinois researchers have developed a metasurface that can redirect magnetic fields to efficiently charge devices that are far from and/or misaligned with a power source. The metasurface is flexible and performs well even when distorted, making it an excellent candidate for mounting on skin or other curved or nonuniform surfaces. This technology can be configured to charge multiple devices and offers an approximately 10x faster charge as compared to state-of-the-art solutions for difficult-to-charge devices.
A large scale and uniform c-GaN design Can Bayram has designed a process to overcome the limitations of the h-GaN counterpart such as its inability to maintain an acceptable efficiency of light output without... Read More Can Bayram has designed a process to overcome the limitations of the h-GaN counterpart such as its inability to maintain an acceptable efficiency of light output without increasing costs. Dr. Bayram’s invention takes the form of an industry approved process that yields a large area uniform structure c-GaN array resulting in a GaN semiconductor that would be able to produce photons even under high power density operation. This allows this technology to emit light in the green part of the visible spectrum more efficiently than its h-GaN counterpart that achieves a higher efficiency than even the Department of Energy’s goal efficiency.
Subsurface Volumetric Photonic Integrated Circuits Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed improvements to their innovative photonic integrated circuit (PIC) design, which features three-dimensional... Read More Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed improvements to their innovative photonic integrated circuit (PIC) design, which features three-dimensional subsurface networks of optical components (UIUC ref. no. 2017-212). The paradigm, called "volumetric photonic integrated circuits" (VPIC), addresses the bottleneck of large surface area requirements faced by conventional PICs by embedding the networks vertically within a semiconductor (e.g., porous silicon) material. The present improvements include a variety of new subsurface components which exhibit low loss and high total efficiency competitive with silicon photonics. Components include high Q microrings; lenses and waveguides for efficient coupling; Mach Zehnder interferometers; loop mirrors; and distributed Bragg reflectors.
Gigahertz Radio Frequency Processing through Thin-Film Piezoelectric Double Layer University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers Songbin Gong, Ruochen Lu, Yansong Yang, and Steffen Link have fabricated an acoustic filter that functions with high... Read More University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers Songbin Gong, Ruochen Lu, Yansong Yang, and Steffen Link have fabricated an acoustic filter that functions with high fractional bandwidth and low signal loss at gigahertz frequencies necessary for emerging 5G new radio technologies. The acoustic filter is suitable for 5G mobile devices (e.g. smart phones), which will employ wavebands of higher frequencies than 4G technology. The device maintains small proportions without the fabrication challenges seen from scaling existing acoustic filter components present in 4G devices. The filter employs a double layer of thin-film lithium niobate, a piezoelectric material, which serves to convert mechanical energy (radio waves) to electronic signals in 5G devices with better performance in the 3-6 GHz range than existing technologies.

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