Researchers develop a paper-thin loudspeaker
MIT engineers have developed a paper-thin loudspeaker that can turn any surface into an active audio source.
Apr 26, 2022
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Electronics & Semiconductors
MIT engineers have developed a paper-thin loudspeaker that can turn any surface into an active audio source.
Apr 26, 2022
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Telecom
MIT researchers have demonstrated the first system for ultra-low-power underwater networking and communication, which can transmit signals across kilometer-scale distances.
Sep 6, 2023
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Engineering
Wearable sensors are ubiquitous thanks to wireless technology that enables a person's glucose concentrations, blood pressure, heart rate, and activity levels to be transmitted seamlessly from sensor to smartphone for further ...
Aug 18, 2022
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187
Engineering
Standard image sensors, like the billion or so already installed in practically every smartphone in use today, capture light intensity and color. Relying on common, off-the-shelf sensor technology—known as CMOS—these ...
Mar 28, 2022
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246
Engineering
Engineers have designed and successfully tested a more efficient wind sensor for use on drones, balloons and other autonomous aircraft.
Aug 8, 2022
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154
Engineering
In recent years, teams of engineers worldwide have been trying to develop acoustic devices based on piezoelectrics (i.e., materials that can produce electricity when mechanical stress is applied to them) integrated with conventional ...
Energy & Green Tech
A team of mechanical engineers at Beihang University, Peking University and the University of Houston has found that it is possible to capture small amounts of electricity by repeatedly squeezing treated luffa sponges. In ...
Electronics & Semiconductors
Researchers at Peking University, Southern University of Science and Technology and the University of Jinan in China have recently designed a ceramic-polymer composite that can be used to print complex 3-D grid architectures. ...
Energy & Green Tech
In a world hungry for clean energy, engineers have created a new material that converts the simple mechanical vibrations all around us into electricity to power sensors in everything from pacemakers to spacecraft.
May 3, 2023
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125
Electronics & Semiconductors
You may not have heard of piezoelectric materials, but odds are, you have benefitted from them.
May 8, 2023
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Piezoelectricity ( /piˌeɪzoʊˌilɛkˈtrɪsɪti/) is the charge which accumulates in certain solid materials (notably crystals, certain ceramics, and biological matter such as bone, DNA and various proteins) in response to applied mechanical stress. The word piezoelectricity means electricity resulting from pressure. It is derived from the Greek piezo or piezein (πιέζειν), which means to squeeze or press, and electric or electron (ήλεκτρον), which stands for amber, an ancient source of electric charge. Piezoelectricity is the direct result of the piezoelectric effect.
The piezoelectric effect is understood as the linear electromechanical interaction between the mechanical and the electrical state in crystalline materials with no inversion symmetry. The piezoelectric effect is a reversible process in that materials exhibiting the direct piezoelectric effect (the internal generation of electrical charge resulting from an applied mechanical force) also exhibit the reverse piezoelectric effect (the internal generation of a mechanical strain resulting from an applied electrical field). For example, lead zirconate titanate crystals will generate measurable piezoelectricity when their static structure is deformed by about 0.1% of the original dimension. Conversely, those same crystals will change about 0.1% of their static dimension when an external electric field is applied to the material.
Piezoelectricity is found in useful applications such as the production and detection of sound, generation of high voltages, electronic frequency generation, microbalances, and ultrafine focusing of optical assemblies. It is also the basis of a number of scientific instrumental techniques with atomic resolution, the scanning probe microscopies such as STM, AFM, MTA, SNOM, etc., and everyday uses such as acting as the ignition source for cigarette lighters and push-start propane barbecues.
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