Drs. William King and Nenad Miljkovic with collaborators at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a millimeter-scale high-contrast thermal switch...
Drs. William King and Nenad Miljkovic with collaborators at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a millimeter-scale high-contrast thermal switch that can be used for cooling in power electronics and a variety of other electrical and thermal power systems. This liquid-metal based, electrically-controlled thermal switch controls heat transfer of thermally sensitive systems with hotspots smaller than 1 mm and as large as 1 cm and beyond. This technology has a high switching ratio (>10), high switching speed (>1Hz), and it utilizes liquid metal alloys with reduced toxicity, high thermal conductivity and surface tension. Liquid-based thermal switches are the most promising solutions for thermal management at room temperature. They allow to reduce the contact thermal resistance, enhance the operational speed and reduce heat losses. This new device will enable development of thermal circuit in the electrical and thermal power systems on a practical level.
Professor Bahl from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has developed a new RF transmitter capable of transmitting at frequencies below 3 kHz while exploiting...
Professor Bahl from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has developed a new RF transmitter capable of transmitting at frequencies below 3 kHz while exploiting the magnetic component of the electromagnetic field. Transmitting at these low frequencies while taking advantage of the magnetic component of the electromagnetic field will allow for transmission of RF signals through conductive material such as water or the ground. Prior technology for transmitting radio signals at such low frequencies required very large antenna structures along with a large power input. The current technology weighs less than 10 kg and fits in a backpack. This technology has applications in the military as well as oil exploration, mining, and anywhere else where data communication is desired underground or underwater.
This is a new method for fabricating a self-rolled-up membrane (S-RuM) membrane. The invention allows for the fabrication of high-quality-factor milliTesla- and Tesla-...
This is a new method for fabricating a self-rolled-up membrane (S-RuM) membrane. The invention allows for the fabrication of high-quality-factor milliTesla- and Tesla-level inductors for high density circuit applications and allows for the precise tuning of the inductor performance by varying the space between subsequent turns (coils), which affects the thickness of the conducting layers within the inductor. Importantly, this method provides tunable three-dimensional inductors with a reduced footprint when compared with conventional planar inductors.
Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed a processor architecture that allows for greater efficiency in computing power and energy...
Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed a processor architecture that allows for greater efficiency in computing power and energy consumption. The architecture exploits parallelism through thread pipelining and an out-of-order loop system. This process is possible by utilizing more processing elements in the system. This method does create extra cost and is essentially a cost for efficiency trade-off. The system can be used in a variety of embedded systems such as CPUs and GPUs. The decrease in energy consumption can also be applied to servers and other large processing units that consumer a lot of energy and in the process and lot of heat.
A promising direct printing method that combines new materials for hybrid, ultra-stretchable supercapacitors. Supercapacitors can quickly discharge making them ideal for...
A promising direct printing method that combines new materials for hybrid, ultra-stretchable supercapacitors. Supercapacitors can quickly discharge making them ideal for applications such as electric vehicles, ships and trains. These novel materials are lighter weight and have the potential perform better than current supercapacitor technology. These combination of materials can be fabricated in a wide array of shapes and sizes, including thin films and fibers; increasing their electrochemical and mechanical properties such as better electrical conductivity, capacity and durability.
Wireless charging at a distance can be time consuming and inefficient in real-world applications, including for embedded devices such as electronic medical implants....
Wireless charging at a distance can be time consuming and inefficient in real-world applications, including for embedded devices such as electronic medical implants. University of Illinois researchers have developed a metasurface that can redirect magnetic fields to efficiently charge devices that are far from and/or misaligned with a power source. The metasurface is flexible and performs well even when distorted, making it an excellent candidate for mounting on skin or other curved or nonuniform surfaces. This technology can be configured to charge multiple devices and offers an approximately 10x faster charge as compared to state-of-the-art solutions for difficult-to-charge devices.
Can Bayram has designed a process to overcome the limitations of the h-GaN counterpart such as its inability to maintain an acceptable efficiency of light output without...
Can Bayram has designed a process to overcome the limitations of the h-GaN counterpart such as its inability to maintain an acceptable efficiency of light output without increasing costs. Dr. Bayram’s invention takes the form of an industry approved process that yields a large area uniform structure c-GaN array resulting in a GaN semiconductor that would be able to produce photons even under high power density operation. This allows this technology to emit light in the green part of the visible spectrum more efficiently than its h-GaN counterpart that achieves a higher efficiency than even the Department of Energy’s goal efficiency.
