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A First In Integrated Nanowire Sensor Circuitry
Anyone who has walked barefoot across a parking lot on a hot summer day knows that blacktop is exceptionally good at soaking up the sun’s warmth. Now, a research team at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has found a way to use that heat-soaking property for an alternative energy source.
Their method can be used to reproduce numerous such devices with high uniformity.
Nanostructures made with specific chemical, electronic, and other properties have a number of advantages over the same materials in bulk. For example, a nanowire is an ideal shape for a light detector; being virtually one-dimensional, practically “all surface,” a nanowire is not only highly sensitive to light energy, but its electronic response is greatly enhanced as well.
To be practical, however, the photosensors must be integrated with electronics on the same chip. And the materials that make an ideal photosensor are necessarily different from those that make a good transistor.
Full article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080804190647.htmNanostructures made with specific chemical, electronic, and other properties have a number of advantages over the same materials in bulk. For example, a nanowire is an ideal shape for a light detector; being virtually one-dimensional, practically “all surface,” a nanowire is not only highly sensitive to light energy, but its electronic response is greatly enhanced as well.
To be practical, however, the photosensors must be integrated with electronics on the same chip. And the materials that make an ideal photosensor are necessarily different from those that make a good transistor.
Source: sciencedaily.com
Credit image: Javey Group