Tiny luminescent particles are used in more and more products today: from smartphones to OLED televisions to car headlights. For industry, exact knowledge of luminescence efficiency is crucial. The Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) is developing reliable measurement methods for this purpose, thus closing an important gap in standardization. Luminescent materials are finding more and more applications in daily life: They are used in medical technology in diagnostic procedures, in photovoltaics, in security codes on banknotes, in the displays of LED or OLED televisions, smartphones or e-book readers, and in lighting technology. The trend here is from particles in the micrometer range to those with nanometer sizes, which have particularly advantageous scattering properties and can show a high luminescence yield. The decisive factor for all applications of these materials is the efficiency of their photoluminescence, in short: their luminescence efficiency. This quantity presents a direct measure of the number of light quanta or photons that the particles emit compared to those they absorb. This is also referred to as the luminescence quantum yield. This key parameter determines the brightness of the substances. It is, therefore, a decisive indicator for companies that manufacture or use such materials for evaluating and comparing the quality, performance, and suitability of different luminous particles. However, to date, there is only one international s...

Rice University engineers have achieved a new benchmark in the design of atomically thin solar cells made of semiconducting perovskites, boosting their efficiency while retaining their ability to stand up to the environment. The lab of Aditya Mohite of Rice’s George R. Brown School of Engineering discovered that sunlight itself contracts the space between atomic layers in 2D perovskites enough to improve the material’s photovoltaic efficiency by up to 18%, an astounding leap in a field where progress is often measured in fractions of a percent. The research "Light-activated interlayer contraction in two-dimensional perovskites for high-efficiency solar cells" appears in Nature Nanotechnology. “In 10 years, the efficiencies of perovskites have skyrocketed from about 3% to over 25%,” Mohite said. “Other semiconductors have taken about 60 years to get there. That’s why we’re so excited.” Perovskites are compounds that have cubelike crystal lattices and are highly efficient light harvesters. Their potential has been known for years, but they present a conundrum: They’re good at converting sunlight into energy, but sunlight and moisture degrade them. “A solar cell technology is expected to work for 20 to 25 years,” said Mohite, an associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and of materials science and nanoengineering. “We’ve been working for many years and continue to work with bulk perovskites that are very efficient but not as stable. In contrast, 2D perovski...

Speaker: Ian Tevis | Company: SAFI-Tech | Date: 11-12 May 2021 | Full Presentation Join TechBlick on an annual pass to join all live online conference or online version of onsite conference access library of on-demand talks (600 talks + PDFs) portfolio of expert led masterclass year-round platform https://www.techblick.com/ And do NOT miss our flagship event in Berlin on 17-18 OCT 2023 focused on Reshaping the Future of Electronics. This event attracts 550-600 participants from all the world and offers a superb ambience and dynamic exhibition floor. To learn more visit https://www.techblick.com/electronicsreshaped To see feedback about previous event see https://www.techblick.com/events-agenda...

Epishine and Optiqo have collaborated and this has now resulted in a brand-new version of Optiqo's QlvrBox powered with organic solar cells optimized to harvest indoor lighting that now is available for order worldwide. This version of the QlvrBox enables improved sustainability, monitoring, and quality management of cleaning and facility management services. Optiqo's QlvrBox uses real-time visitor traffic data to alert maintenance technicians when facility areas require service or cleaning, which enables companies to proactively manage and validate cleaning and maintenance events to ensure 100% compliance and, in turn, increase customer satisfaction. The QlvrBox also has an indicator showing the most recent service or cleaning event to ensure the facility’s visitors feel secure.

Epishine and Optiqo have cooperated to optimize Optiqo's QlvrBox. QlvrBox currently operates on batteries, enabling the device to be installed independently of the facility’s infrastructure. This feature offers a great benefit when installing the boxes, however, the batteries need to be replaced every 1-3 years. The new version of QlvrBox is developed with Epishine's solution for light energy harvesting, which extends the battery life by the generated power from ambient lighting. This reduces both the number of batteries and the maintenance cost. For more information, visit: https://www.epishine.com/pr/worldwide-launch-of-optiqos-qlvrbox-extended-with-epishines-organic-solar-cells-optimised-to-...

A method that combines screen-printable composite and metallic inks could make foldable electronics easier and cheaper to manufacture at industrial scales. These devices, developed at KAUST, can be mounted on various supports, including nonplanar surfaces, and could enable many Internet of Things applications. The work "All Screen-Printed, Polymer-Nanowire Based Foldable Electronics for mm-Wave Applications" was published in Advanced Materials Technologies.

Next-generation technology such as automotive radars for self-driving cars, smart buildings, and wearable sensors will depend more heavily on the high-frequency millimeter-wave band, including 5G. To date, large-scale manufacturing approaches to make foldable electronics have focused on developing metallic inks and printing conductive patterns and have overlooked dielectric substrates.

There has been a range of barriers to the use of substrates such as paper and some polymer films in foldable electronics. These substrates involve fabrication processes that are too constraining and complex for mass production and cannot produce multilayered or ultrathin flexible devices. They also have a dielectric loss that exceeds the requirements for millimeter-wave devices.
Atif Shamim and coworkers have now devised a composite ink composed of ceramic particles dispersed in the polymer acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS). They used this new ink to generate extremely flexible, large-area dielectric substrates with tunable latera...

A high-performance version of the zinc-ion battery will enable station energy storage that promises to be cheaper, safer, and more environmentally friendly than lithium-ion batteries. Until now, zinc-ion batteries have been severely hampered by their rapid degradation during use. Now, a KAUST team has developed a new electrolyte and electrode combination that improved several aspects of zinc-ion battery performance, particularly the stability over multiple charges and discharge cycles. Their work was published in Energy & Environmental Science journal " Concentrated dual-cation electrolyte strategy for aqueous zinc-ion batteries" Stationary banks of batteries connected to renewable energy sources, such as solar installations or wind farms, could be key to the transition from the current fossil-fuel-powered electricity grid. Unlike batteries for mobile applications, such as laptops or electric cars where battery size and weight are key, stationary batteries can be relatively large and heavy, raising the possibility that alternative rechargeable battery technologies to lithium-ion could be deployed. Batteries centered on a water-based solution of zinc ions have shown great potential for stationary storage in terms of their high capacity, low cost, and lack of toxicity. “But issues including low cycling stability and fast self-discharge have prohibited practical applications of aqueous zinc-ion batteries,” says Yunpei Zhu, a research scientist in Husam Alshareef's group, who led...

Imagine your car starting the moment you get in because it recognizes the jacket you’re wearing. Consider the value of a hospital gown that continuously measures and transmits a patient’s vital signs. These are just two applications made possible by a new “body area network”-enabling fabric invented by engineers at the University of California, Irvine. In a paper published recently in Nature Electronics "Textile-integrated metamaterials for near-field multibody area networks", researchers in UCI’s Henry Samueli School of Engineering detail how they integrated advanced metamaterials into flexible textiles to create a system capable of battery-free communication between articles of clothing and nearby devices. “If you’ve held your smartphone or charge card close to a reader to pay for a purchase, you have taken advantage of near-field signaling technologies. Our fabrics work on the same principle, but we’ve extended the range significantly,” said co-author Peter Tseng, UCI assistant professor of electrical engineering & computer science. “This means you could potentially keep your phone in your pocket, and just by brushing your body against other textiles or readers, power and information can be transferred to and from your device.” Lead author Amirhossein Hajiaghajani, a UCI Ph.D. student in electrical engineering & computer science, said the invention enables wearers to digitally interact with nearby electronic devices and make secure payments with a single...

Nano Ops, Inc. is pleased to host its first webinar on December 2, 2021, @ 1:30 eastern since the launch of FLEX RD and FFx RD800, Fab-in-a-Tool series products. Nano OPS is the world's first manufacturer of purely additive manufacturing tools capable of printing nanoscale features, bringing a nanomanufacturing fab in your lab. The webinar with Dr. Ahmed Busnaina, CTO of Nano OPS, Inc. will discuss an elegant, low-cost, high throughput additive manufacturing technology that can be implemented at a fraction of the capital investment required of any other technology. Join the Q&A to ask all your questions on how you can implement manufacturing solutions for advanced packaging in your organization at a fraction of the cost of conventional technologies or foundry offered services using additive manufacturing of electronics. Register Here https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/8316377774487/WN_xPhegbzSTJC8SpfrOMqaAQ...