Engineers at IBM Research are claiming to have built the world’s most advanced graphene-based computer chip, with performance that’s 10,000 times better than previous graphene ICs. The key to the breakthrough is a new manufacturing technique that allows the graphene to be deposited on the chip without it being damaged (something that has heretofore been very hard to achieve). Perhaps more importantly, though, this new method is actually compatible with standard silicon CMOS processes. In short, we are closer than ever before to realizing a commercial graphene computer chip.
Engineers from Columbia University have just revealed to us the world’s smallest FM transmitter, which they managed to build around a nanoscale graphene oscillator. Details of their device, and other fantastic graphene creations, have just appeared in the current online issue of Nature Nanotechnology.
Researchers at the University of Buffalo have just received a prestigious grant to develop ultrasonic body-area networks for implant communication. While still in its infancy, the field needs to mature rapidly to meet the problems of implant congestion that already looms for several classes of devices.
Unless you’ve been locked away in an isolated Montana cabin for the last few years, you’ll have noticed that radio frequency allocations are serious business. A few kilohertz here or a few megahertz there can cost billions of dollars to acquire, make or break a mobile carrier, or render the Global Positioning System — and the US military’s ability to use targeted munitions — null and void. What you probably don’t know, though, is why it’s so hard to get your hands on a block of radio spectrum.