"TERAHERTZ: microwaves meet infrared at the final frontier"
With all the advances in solid-state communications � from long-wavelength, very low-frequency radio waves that talk to submerged submarines, to short-wavelength, very high-frequency light waves that communicate with lasers � you would think the whole electromagnetic spectrum was covered. You'd be wrong. There exists a gap, centered at 1 trillion cycles per second, that the solid-state era has only begun to bridge. The terahertz gap is the last frontier in the EM spectrum. Terahertz frequencies are where microwaves meet infrared light waves. Microwaves are "millimeter wavelengths" whereas infrared is "nanometer wavelength," leaving the terahertz gap nestled in between at "micron wavelengths."
Audio Interviews / Text: http://eetimes.com/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=18402806

"AI: Sharp unit to license IP from U.S. labs"
Artificial-intelligence technology that could change the way busy sports fans get their fix will be among the licensable intellectual property unveiled here Tuesday (March 23) by the newly formed Sharp Technology Ventures. The venture's charter is to commercialize technologies developed at Sharp Laboratories of America Inc. that have languished here in the labs � "technologies that, for one reason or another, Sharp Corp. in Japan is not going to develop," said Jon Clemens, the leader of Sharp Technology Ventures. Clemens retired last year as director of Sharp Labs after getting permission from the $20 billion parent company in Osaka to form the tech venture company.
Audio Interviews / Text: http://eet.com/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=18401011

"ANTI-TERROR: sensor net prototype being tested in Tennessee"
SensorNet, a first-alert anti-terrorist network, is being tested in Tennessee before it's delivered to Homeland Security for use nationwide. It is one more step toward outfitting U.S. weather stations to detect the release of toxins and predict where the winds will take them. The Tennessee prototype will be a good test of the national deployment plan, said John Strand, project manager for the SensorNet program. A cooperative effort by Oak Ridge and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the program now has working sites in New York, Washington and Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and Nashville, Knoxville and Oak Ridge, Tenn. SensorNet will span the state with sensors that can alert emergency responders and the public when they are in danger of being exposed to water- or airborne toxins from chemical, biological or radiological releases.
Audio Interview / Text: http://eetimes.com/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=18400970

"TERAHERTZ: SiGe process tapped for 'X-ray vision'"
Russian and U.S. academics are collaborating to develop terahertz silicon germanium chips for "X-ray vision" systems that could peer through suitcases and clothing to identify weapons, through clouds to guide aircraft and through skin to pinpoint cancer. The researchers foresee the chips' use in terahertz scanning spectrometers, just now coming over the technological horizon. "We are very excited about collaborating with our Russian colleagues. We will combine their work on the theoretical side with our work using SiGe to improve three different types of terahertz emitter chips we have designed," said James Kolodzey, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Delaware (Newark). Kolodzey's counterpart in Russia is Miron Kagan, director of the Russian Academy's Institute of Radioengineering and Electronics (Moscow). That institute in turn collaborates with the Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute (St. Petersburg).
Audio Interviews / Text: http://eetimes.com/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=18400273

"NANOTECH: Oregon prof: Wires beat tubes in nano world"
With so many stories heralding the merits of carbon nanotubes as the channels of next-generation nanoscale transistors, you'd think the case was closed. Not so, say researchers here who claim nanowires can create better nanoscale transistors � ones that can be placed more accurately, can use application-specific doping and can be more easily integrated with traditional silicon processing. "Our most recent results show how to grow nanowires in precisely the places you want them on silicon wafers. Nanowires offer many advantages over nanotubes, such as the ability to dope them in different well-understood ways for different applications," said EE professor Rajendra Solanki at Oregon Health and Science University.
Audio Interviews / Text: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20040311S0024

"NANOTECH: Nanowires vie with carbon nanotubes for next-gen transistors"
With so many stories heralding the merits of carbon nanotubes as the channels of next-generation nanoscale transistors, you'd think the case was closed. Not so, say researchers here who claim nanowires can create better nanoscale transistors � ones that can be placed more accurately, can use application-specific doping and can be more easily integrated with traditional silicon processing. "Our most recent results show how to grow nanowires in precisely the places you want them on silicon wafers. Nanowires offer many advantages over nanotubes, such as the ability to dope them in different well-understood ways for different applications," said EE professor Rajendra Solanki at Oregon Health and Science University (cse.ogi.edu/edu).
Audio Interviews / Text: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20040303S0033

"SONAR: renders ocean floor transparent"
A breakthrough in sonar technology may soon make it possible to more accurately detect and map underwater artifacts, such as mines, even when they are buried. "Our results are from simulations, but they show that some relatively simple changes to standard sonar equipment will result in a much simpler and effective means of detecting underwater mines," said David Pierson, a Johns Hopkins University scientist who invented the technique for his dissertation under professor David Aspnes at North Carolina State University.
Audio Interviews / Text: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20040305S0039

"T-Hz: Metamaterial plumbs terahertz region"
Metamaterial experts have bridged the terahertz-gap by demonstrating a magnetic sensor based on split-ring resonators. SRRs function as artificial atoms in a metamaterial, but are actually constructed from concentric planar copper rings. By shrinking a microwave (millimeter wavelengths) SRR from 5 millimeters to 50 microns, researchers said they demonstrated a magnetic response that bridges the terahertz gap (micron wavelengths), thereby opening the door to solid-state sensors that can see through some solid objects.
Audio Interview / Text: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20040305S0023