New Nanotech Allows For Crazy Fast Data Transfer

The new technology is coming out of the University of California Berkley and could theoretically lead to some pretty unbelievable data transfer speeds.

Xiang Zhang is heading up a team that has successfully created a tiny optical device that allows them to switch light on and off. The new tech would allows for super fast data packet transmission, seeing as light is pretty much the fastest traveling photon (wave?) that we currently know of.

Zhang’s team found a cherry spot in the voltage levels of graphene by combining it with silicon that allows them to prevent the normally free flowing light photons to be blocked, which means they can communicate in binary and in turn they can transfer data. Simple right?

The amazing thing here is that since it’s light, it’s really really really fast, although the team has only been successful in creating a 1GHz modulation speed, in theory the tech will allow for speeds up to 500GHz from a single modulator. That means you could download huge multi-GB files in seconds or minuets.

Zhang said in a quote to TG Daily;

"Graphene-based modulators not only offer an increase in modulation speed, they can enable greater amounts of data packed into each pulse"

If you imagine  it like a water faucet, current data transfer speeds are at about a drip, this new tech could would be like cranking both handles open and shut, letting the water blast out fast as possible in each burst.

I’m looking forward to hearing more from Zhang and his team. The next few years are definantly shaping up to be very interesting for Nano-tech.

Related Stuffs:

• Source: TG Daily
• Article: Intel Adds New Dimension To It's Processors
• Article: Silicon Chip Slows Down Light
• Article: Scientist Develop First Anti Laser

Sound, The Next Source Of Battery Charging Power?

By: syeed@techsual.com

A new technology being worked on in South Korea allows sound waves to be converted into energy. Right now it’s being tested and used on small electronics such as cell phones, but the man behind the project has some pretty high hopes.

That man is Dr. Sang-Woo Kim, of the institute of nanotechnology at Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea. He told the UK Telegraph;

"A number of approaches for scavenging energy from environments have been intensively explored.

"The sound that always exists in our everyday life and environments has been overlooked as a source. This motivated us to realize power generation by turning sound energy from speech, music or noise into electrical power.

His team has been successful in doing just that. The technology they've developed uses Nano-sized strands of zinc oxide placed between two electrodes. When sound hits an absorption pad that’s placed on top, the zinc oxide wires compress and release. The tiny movements then generates the electrical current that charges the battery.

Of course the tiny amount of energy being generated isn’t quite enough to do anything really significant, but Dr. Kim has hopes that a new material might yield much better results.

Dr. Kim also hopes that in the future his technology will be used in a larger capacity. He also mentioned to the UK Telegraph that “Sound power can be used for various novel applications including cellular phones that can be charged during conversations and sound-insulating walls near highways that generate electricity from the sound of passing vehicles.  He added that putting using “sound power” to insulate walls would not only help run the buildings electricity, but also provide better sound insulation to keep noise inside down.

This isn’t the only ‘environmentally charged’ technology on the block by any means, there have been devices that run on everything from kinetic (movement) energy to the human heartbeat. The thing that makes this interesting to me is, if the tech gets to a level where it CAN charge your phone. That would be pretty damned cool, I mean really what would be better than a phone that pretty much never dies. Since the phone can charge using sound from any source, you don’t necessarily have to be talking on the phone in order for the charge to take effect. That means the only time you’ll really be losing battery is when your playing games in church or the dentist's office, or whatever other awkward quiet places you like to hang out.

Related Stuffs:

• Source: UK Telegraph

• Article: (PCMag) New Tech Could Power Cell Phones Through Sound

University of Illinois Working on Improving Mobile Battery Life

 

A team of engineers at the university of Illinois have are developing a new form of memory that could increase battery life in cell phones and laptops by 100x.

The group is led by electrical and computer engineering professor Eric Pop, and  plan to release their findings in an upcoming issue of Science magazine and online in the Science Express.

The new technology uses carbon nanotubes to make a devices flash memory so small that it draws 100 times less energy than current tech.

Check the link for an article over at Nanotechnology Now.

Article: New Technology Would Dramatically Extend Battery Life for Mobile Devices