Technology


A young inventor’s design might make EVs lighter, cheaper and more sustainable


A 17-year-old from the US has completely redesigned and significantly simplified the induction motors widely used today, which might have a big impact on the electric vehicles (EVs) of the future. EVs, as well as other systems, use permanent


magnetic motors to create torque. In a permanent magnet motor, conductive coils along the stator induce a magnetic field when powered. Permanent magnets on the rotor react to this field, causing a spin along the central axis of the motor shaſt, in turn creating torque for the vehicle. Instead of this type motors, Robert Sansone


turned to the synchronous reluctance motor, typically found in lower-torque applications such as pumps and fans. A synchronous reluctance motor does not


use magnets. It features a slotted-disc rotor that produces the torque when “catching” the stator. However, this torque is not strong enough for powering EVs. Sansone redesigned the synchronous


reluctance motor by adding a magnetic field, which increased torque by nearly 40% and improved efficiency 30% at 300rpm, and even 40% at 750rpm.


Regeneron ISEF competition 2022 winners, left to right: Rishab Jain, Robert Sansone and Abdullah Al-Ghamdi Sansone is also keen to make his design


sustainable. He hopes his research will lead to the proliferation of electric vehicles made of sustainable materials. “Seeing the day when EVs are fully


sustainable due to the help of my novel motor design would be a dream come true,” he said. “Rare-earth materials in existing electric motors


are a major factor undermining the sustainability of electric vehicles.” Te 17-year old won the top prize of $75,000


at the 2022 Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (Regeneron ISEF), the world’s largest global high-school competition. Other top prizes went to projects covering energy storage, biomedical engineering and robotics.


Flexible GaAs photodetector will ‘see’ a broad range of the electromagnetic spectrum


A team of engineers from the University of Glasgow have developed a new photodetector that could form the base for an electronic skin capable of detecting a broad range of the electromagnetic spectrum. Te device was made by printing microscale gallium arsenide (GaAs) semiconductors onto a flexible plastic surface that can withstand hundreds of bending and flexing cycles. GaAs is in many ways a wondrous material,


capable of fast switching frequencies at low power and with low noise, suitable for many high-performance electronic devices. To date, however, such transistors have mainly been deposited on hard substrates, which is where the University of Glasgow team’s solution differs: Te scientists printed GaAs electronics onto a flexible surface using arrays of wires


06 October 2022 www.electronicsworld.co.uk


that are 15 microns wide. Te new type of flexible photodetector can sense light from the ultraviolet range, through the visible portion of the spectrum, to infrared – at extremely low power. Te system is capable of ultrafast responses,


taking just 2.5ms to measure light and 8ms to recover – a performance as good as the best currently available non-flexible photodetectors. “We’ve been working for many years to


advance the capabilities of flexible electronics,” said Professor Ravinder Dahiya of the University of Glasgow’s James Watt School of Engineering, and leader of the Bendable Electronics and Sensing Technologies (BEST) research group. “We’ve found new ways to print electronics directly onto flexible surfaces,


built electronic skin capable of feeling ‘pain’, and developed bendable electronics that can be powered by the sun or human sweat.” Te team believes this type of light-


sensitive flexible material could give robots new abilities: mechanical arms used for manufacturing in light-sensitive environments could, for example, detect changing safety conditions at work. Flexible, broad-spectrum photodetectors could also be used in wireless communication systems where fast transmission and response speeds are always in high demand. “It could even be used to develop a


wearable patch for humans to use to monitor their exposure to UV light during sunny days, and warn them when they are at risk of getting sunburnt,” said Dahiya.


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