Ion Beam Processing of Ultra-Smooth Glass-Ceramic Optics 

"Researchers at Louisiana State University and Harvard University have demonstrated a new approach for evaluating the mechanical integrity of interfaces between hard coatings and substrates. Polycrystalline Cu and CRN films were sputter deposited sequentially onto Si(100) substrates. The resulting "predominantly <111> oriented Cu thin films of varying thicknesses were confined between Si and CrN."  Researchers fabricated cylindrical micro-pillars of CrN/Cu/Si(100) by focus ion beam (FIB) milling with interfaces at pre-determined inclination angles with respect to the pillar axes."

"Triple glazing is intended to keep as much of the expensive heating energy inside houses as possible, but a drop in outside temperature causes the outermost pane to cool down significantly overnight, and moisture in the air is deposited as condensation, resulting in misty windows.

The Megatron sputtering system, developed by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering in Thin Films IST, Germany opens the way to development of entirely new coating systems for a variety of applications.  In the case of triple glazing on windows, researchers deliberately contaminate the coating material with niobium in order to make it conductive. Unlike conventional sputtering systems, Megatron allows users to vary the doping concentration to any required level.  It also enables users to increase the coating rate and obtain a smoother surface.

The system allows entirely new coatings to be created by combining materials in a film that cannot be mixed in the form of a target, and were previously impossible to produce." 

 "Sensors are among the hottest technologies in the electronic components market these days, as the drive to connect everything from industrial systems to health monitoring equipment to the Web creates new demand for sophisticated products that incorporate a higher number of sensors. This is especially true in the wearable electronic devices market, where sensor shipments are expected to increase nearly seven-fold between 2013 and 2019, according to a recent industry report from researcher IHS Technology.

IHS predicts that shipments of sensors for wearable electronics will hit 466 million units by 2019, up from 67 million units in 2013. Sensor shipments will rise more quickly than the market for wearable devices themselves, the researcher added, forecasting that wearable devices shipments will increase to 135 million units by 2019, compared to 50 million in 2013.

The average wearable device shipped in 2019 will incorporate 4.1 sensor elements, up from 1.4 in 2013, according to IHS. The researcher also expects components such as humidity sensors and pulse sensors to move from handsets to wearables, further boosting sensor sales. Smart watches from brands such as Samsung and Apple are just one example.

Many industry-watchers say 2015 will mark an acceleration point for sensors. IHS points to a doubling of wearable sensor shipments next year, for instance. Sensors were also a key topic at October's Electronic Components Industry Association Executive Conference, as manufacturers and distributors discussed their potential across industrial, automotive, health, and fitness categories." 

"A team of researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory and Ohio University have devised a powerful technique that simultaneously resolves the chemical characterization and topography of nanoscale materials down to the height of a single atom.

The technique combines synchrotron X-rays (SX) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). In experiments, the researchers used SX as a probe and a nanofabricated smart tip of a STM as a detector.

Using this technique, researchers detected the chemical fingerprint of individual nickel clusters on a copper surface at a two-nanometer (nm) lateral resolution, and at the ultimate single atom height sensitivity. By varying the photon energy, the researchers used the difference in photoabsorption cross sections for nickel and the copper substrate to chemically image a single-nickel nanocluster - thus opening the door to new opportunities for chemical imaging of nanoscale materials.  Until now, spatial limits of about only 10-nm was attainable, and the researchers would simultaneously sample a large sample area.  The researchers have improved the spatial resolution to 2 nm." 

"An ultra-thin nanomaterial is at the heart of a major breakthrough by Waterloo scientists who are in a global race to invent a cheaper, lighter and more powerful rechargeable battery for electric vehicles.

A research team at the Faculty of Science at the University of Waterloo has announced a breakthrough in lithium-sulfur battery technology in a recent issue of Nature Communications. 
Their discovery of a material that maintains a rechargeable sulfur cathode helps to overcome a primary hurdle to building a lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery. Such a battery can theoretically power an electric car three times further than current lithium-ion batteries for the same weight - at much lower cost.

The group originally thought that porous carbons or graphenes could stabilize the polysulfides by physically trapping them. But in an unexpected twist, they discovered metal oxides could be the key.

Researchers found that nanosheets of manganese dioxide (MnO2) work even better than titanium oxides, their main goal was to clarify the mechanism at work. They found that the oxygenated surface of the ultrathin MnO2 nanosheet chemically recycles the sulfides in a two-step process involving a surface-bound intermediate, polythiosulfate. The result is a high-performance cathode that can recharge more than 2000 cycles."

"At this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), keynote speaker Samsung Electronics CEO Boo-Keun Yoon called for the industry to "unlock the infinite possibilities of the Internet of Things," while suggesting that other companies follow what Samsung has set in place. He emphasized the importance of an "open ecosystem" for IoT, noting that "cross-industry collaboration is the key."

Yoon was less than subtle in reminding the audience of Samsung's unequivocal dominance in the global consumer electronics market today, and the company's commitment to the IoT market of tomorrow. He noted that Samsung put 665 million products in the hands of consumers last year. "That's 20 devices a second," he said."

Backed by its prowess in mass production, marketing and technology, Samsung will call the tune in the IoT market. He promised that by 2017, 90 per cent of Samsung devices will be IoT devices. Yoon said he hopes to make that 100 per cent within the next five years.

The Samsung CEO described the challenges of IoT today as the lack of an "open ecosystem" and a need for "cross-industry collaboration." On that note, Yoon declared, "Our IoT components and devices will be open." He said Samsung will be committing $100 million toward bolstering its IoT programs with developers and startups."
 

"Buoyed by strong demand for digital displays and mass production of a new generation of microchips, makers of electronic materials anticipate a solid performance in 2015.

Last year was already positive for companies, with leading players such as Dow Chemical, Shin-Etsu Chemical, and JSR enjoying strong growth. For instance, JSR posted a 32% increase in sales of semiconductor materials in the first half of the fiscal year that ends March 31.

This year will also be expansionary, according to JSR President Mitsunobu Koshiba, because the chip industry will shrink circuit lines from 20 nm to 14 nm. Increasing circuitry fineness translates into higher demand for specialized materials, he says.  "Demand for electronic materials for semiconductors could increase by 40%" in 2015, Koshiba says. "It's not that the number of silicon wafers being processed will increase by that much but rather that processes are getting more complicated, which leads to more layers applied."