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South China VOLUME 34 - NUMBER 7
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THE GLOBAL HI-TECH ELECTRONICS PUBLICATION July, 2019 Quantum Music to My Ears
Washington, D.C., — It sounds like an old-school vinyl record, but the distinctive crackle in the music streamed into Chris Holloway’s laboratory is atomic in origin. The
group at the National Institute for Standards and Tech- nology (NIST), Boulder, Colorado, spent a long six years finding a way to directly measure electric fields using atoms, so who can blame them for then having a little fun with their new technology? “My vision is to cut a CD in the lab — our stu-
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Laritech Partners with ASM
dio — at some point and have the first CD record- ed with Rydberg atoms,” says Holloway. While he doesn’t expect the atomic-recording’s lower sound quality to replace digital music recordings, the team of research scientists is considering how this “entertaining” example of atomic sensing could be applied in communication devices of the future. “Atom-based antennas might give us a better
way of picking up audio data in the presence of noise, potentially even the very weak signals transmitted in deep space communications,” says Holloway, who describes his atomic receiver in AIP Advances. The atoms in question — Rydberg atoms —
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C.L. Holloway in his atomic-recording studio (credit: J. Burrus, NIST).
are atoms excited by lasers into a high energy state that respond in a measurable way to radio waves (an electric field). After figuring out how to measure electric field strength using the Rydberg atoms, Holloway said it was a relatively simple step to apply the same atoms to record and play back music — starting with Holloway’s own guitar improvisations in A minor. They encoded the music onto radio waves in much the same way cellphone conversations are
Continued on page 8
3D Printing Enables Flexible Circuits
Exatron develops serialized programming for secure IoT devices; KIC discusses opti- mized reflow profiling with software; and ViscoTec offers a microdispensing solution for semi- and fully-automated production. Special Features begin on……
Page 56
Hamburg, Germany — A research co- operation between the University of Hamburg and DESY has developed a process suitable for 3D printing that can be used to produce transparent and mechanically flexible electronic circuits. The electronics consist of a mesh of silver nanowires that can be printed in suspension and embedded in various flexible and transparent plastics (polymers). This technology can enable new applications, such as printable LEDs, solar cells or tools with integrated circuits. “At the heart of the technology
are silver nanowires, which form a conductive mesh,” explains Tomke Glier, University of Hamburg re- searcher. The silver wires are typi-
cally several tens of nanometers thick and 10 to 20 micrometers long. Detailed X-ray analysis shows that the structure of the nanowires in the polymer is not changed, and that the conductivity of the mesh even im- proves, due to the compression by the polymer as it contracts during the curing process. The silver nanowires are ap-
plied to a substrate in suspension and dried. “For cost reasons, the aim is to achieve the highest possible con- ductivity with as few nanowires as possible. This also increases the transparency of the material,” says Stephan Roth, DESY researcher and a professor at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. “In this way, layer-by-layer, a conductive path or surface can be produced.” A flexible polymer is applied to
the conductive tracks, which in turn can be covered with conductive traces and contacts. Depending on the geometry and material used, var- ious electronic components can be printed this way. So far, the researchers have
Continued on page 6
“Holy Grail” of Universal Memory
Bailrigg, Lancaster, UK — A new type of computer memory that could solve the digital technology energy crisis has been invented and patent- ed by scientists from Lancaster Uni- versity in the U.K. The electronic memory device promises to trans- form daily life with its ultra-low en- ergy consumption. In the home, energy savings
from efficient lighting and appliances have been completely wiped out by increased use of computers and gadg- ets. By 2025 a “tsunami of data” is expected to consume a fifth of global electricity. However, this new device would
immediately reduce peak power con- sumption in data centers by a fifth. It would also allow, for example, com- puters that do not need to boot up and could instantaneously and im- perceptibly go into an energy-saving sleep mode — even between key- strokes. The device is the realization of
the search for a “universal memory,” Continued on page 8
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