Hybrid 3D printing creates stretchable & wearable circuits in a single process

A new method for digital design and printing of stretchable, flexible electronics has been developed by a team of researchers from the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Wyss Institute at Harvard University. Hybrid 3D printing, as the scientists call this technique, uses additive manufacturing to integrate soft, conductive inks with a material substrate to create stretchable, wearable electronic devices.

A team of engineers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) have built the most flexible, fully-functional transistor in the world – and at the same time developed a fast, simple and cheap production process that can easily be scaled up to commercial levels. This new development can open the door to an increasingly 'connected' world…

Engineers and researchers from the University of California (Henry Samuell School of Engineering and Applied Science) and SRI International (an non-profit research and development institute) have developed a thin and flexible component that can be used to cool smartphones and laptops so that overheating can be prevented…

A wearable LED controller. The controller supports Arduino IDE and works with Adafruit Neopixel LED strips and library. All powered by 2x AA batteries.

13.7 nW/Mbit is claimed by Renesas as a record low stand-by power for embedded SRAM. Speed has been retained at 1.8 ns for an active read-out. The firm said it used its in-house 65-nm silicon-on-thin buried oxide (SOTB) process for the prototype, and used substrate biasing to adjust the leakage/speed compromise. The technology is claimed overcome challenges with conventional CMOS, such as the increased leakage with low-threshold transistors and high variability in gate threshold voltage.

A new type of flexible micro-supercapacitors developed by a research team from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore may well sprout developments in the realm of wearable technology, with a variety of applications such as smart T-shirts charging mobile phones.

Designers of wearables, fitness-monitors, IoT applications, mobile and all kinds of connected devices work hard to make the battery life of the newest generation of products as long as possible – and that is becoming increasingly difficult as functionality and speed go up but the enclosure size continues to go down. Power supply solutions for these problems require a high degree of integration and a design that mainly minimizes the quiescent current...

With the rise of the (digital) cameras that are head mounted (or worn on the body), there is also the opportunity to automatically recognize hand movements and gestures. This is not only useful for physical therapy but can also simplify the control of digital applications…

At the CES, Bosch Sensortec unveiled the BMP380 barometric pressure sensor, the smallest and most accurate pressure sensor in their portfolio to date, with dimensions of 2x2x0.75 mm. The BMP380 is targeted at applications in drones, smartphones, tablets, wearables and other mobile devices for precise measurement of elevation changes.

Two companies — one small, Valencell, and one gargantuan, STMicroelectronics — have worked together to produce “an accurate and scalable development kit for biometric wearables”. The kit has essential components from both companies, with Valencell contributing their Benchmark biometric sensor system, and ST throwing in their compact SensorTile turnkey multi-sensor module.