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RSS FeedsNanoresonators to Improve Reception
Category: Science & TechnologyPosted: September 7, 2012 08:25AM
Author: Guest_Jim_*
When you have a limited amount of some resource, it is always a good idea to use it as efficiently as possible. This is true of the wireless spectrum used to connect mobile devices as much as anything, but like many other things, it is hard to achieve such high efficiency. Ideally a small band of frequencies can be used for each connected device, but if you go too small then the signal quality degrades to a point that it is unusable. Researchers at Purdue University however have come up with a way to achieve this higher efficiency without expensive technology.
Nanoresonators are nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) that have a beam that vibrates when a voltage is applied. By precisely turning these devices, they can be used to focus on signals at a specific frequency, thereby allowing a small frequency to be used than with current technology. Also these devices are so small that they require far less power than current tunable filters made of transistors, inductors, and other components.
Nanoresonators have existed for some time and it is not their development that the Purdue researchers recently achieved. Instead the researchers successfully created a method to mass produce them with near perfect yield using modern semiconductor fabrication methods. This could open the door to their use in devices that may then see a speed boost without more power drain.
