The Kynix Blog

New research by scientists from the University of Bristol has revealed that domestic LED lights are much less attractive to nuisance insects such as biting midges than traditional filament lamps.The team now highlights the urgent need for further research on other heat-seeking flies that transmit disease, including mosquitoes that are carriers of pathogens that cause damaging diseases such as malaria and Zika fever.The study, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council and UK lighting manufacturer Integral LED, used customised traps at 18 field test sites across south-west England, illuminated by a series of LED, filament and fluorescent light sources. Over 4,000 insects were carefully identified. The results showed that LEDs attracted four times fewer insects compared with the traditional incandescent lamps, and half as many as were attracted to a compact fluorescent lamp.Notably, for biting flies (midges in the genus Culicoides, some species of which are vectors of wildlife disease), 80 percent were attracted to the filament lamp, 15 percent to the compact fluorescent and only 2-3 percent to each of the two different LED lamps.Dr Andy Wakefield led the field research in a project supervised by Professors Gareth Jones and Stephen Harris from the University's School of Biological Sciences.  Dr Wakefield said: "We were surprised by the number of biting flies drawn to the traditional tungsten lights. We do not know why this is but we know that some insects use thermal cues to find warm-blooded hosts in the night, so perhaps they were attracted to the heat given off by the filament bulb."Co-sponsors of the study, Integral LED were instrumental in the commissioning of the project and provided technical and financial support.The UK company's Marketing Director Sanjiv Kotecha said: "As lighting manufacturers, we welcome that a link between LED lights and low attraction to insects has been proven. The energy saving advantages of solid-state lighting are well known, yet the benefits to well-being are only beginning to be revealed."Reference:ASMT-UYBG-NACJ8XRCWHT-L1-0000-004E6LUWCP7P-KTLP-5E8G-35-Z  

Has your child swallowed a small battery? In the future, a tiny robot made from pig gut could capture it and expel it.Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are designing an ingestible robot that could patch wounds, deliver medicine or dislodge a foreign object. They call their experiment an "origami robot" because the accordion-shaped gadget gets folded up and frozen into an ice capsule."You swallow the robot, and when it gets to your stomach the ice melts and the robot unfolds," said Daniela Rus, a professor who directs MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. "Then, we can direct it to a very precise location."It's still a long way before the device can be deployed in a human or animal. In the meantime, the researchers have created an artificial stomach made of silicone to test it.Rus said one of the robot's most important missions could be to save the lives of children who swallow the disc-shaped button batteries that increasingly power electronic devices. If swallowed, the battery can quickly burn through the stomach lining and be fatal.The robots could seek out and capture the battery before it causes too much damage, pushing it down through the gastrointestinal tract and out of the body.The robot's flexible frame is biodegradable, made of the same dried pig intestine used for sausage casing. The researchers scoured markets in Boston's Chinatown before finding the right material to build an agile robot body that could dissolve once its mission was accomplished."They tried rice paper and sugar paper and hydrogel paper, all sorts of different materials," Rus said. "We found that sausage casing has the best properties when it comes to folding and unfolding and controllability."Embedded in its meaty body—it wouldn't be hard to make a kosher version, Rus said—is a neodymium magnet that looks like a tiny metal cube.Magnetic forces control its movement. Researchers use remote-control joysticks to change the magnetic field, allowing the robot to slip and crawl through the stomach on the way to the object it is trying to retrieve or the wound where it must deliver drugs.Would it hurt to ingest a robot? Probably not, said research team member Steven Guitron, an MIT graduate student in mechanical engineering."I'm sure if you swallowed an ice cube accidently, it's very similar," he said.MIT's team has a patent pending and presented its research at a robotics conference in Sweden this spring. Rus said medical companies have expressed interest in clinical applications, which require going through the regulatory process of conducting animal and human studies."It's a nifty idea," but it could be a decade or so before hospitals could use such a device, said William Messner, a professor of mechanical engineering at Tufts University in Massachusetts who is not involved with the project. He said it could also have promise in performing biopsies.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration "has to get involved with anything like this and they're rightfully very careful about any kind of medical instrument," Messner said. "The big problem is: What if it gets stuck? Now you've really got a problem."The multidisciplinary project fits into the growing field of soft robotics that coalesced with the 2013 founding of the peer-reviewed Soft Robotics Journal, based at Tufts. The Boston region is a hub for research into the moving machines made of flexible materials that can change shape and size, making them useful for surgery and other complex environments.   

Overview: The classifications of wireless charging technologies for electric vehicles are covered in detail in this article. Beyond wired charging methods, wireless charging methods are currently getting a lot of attention because of their benefits.   Catalog Near-Field Charging Technologies Medium-Field Charging Technologies Far-Field Charging Technologies Summarizing with Key Points   According to the transmitted distance, wireless charging methods for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) can be classified into three categories: near-field charging, medium-field charging, and far-field charging. Near-Field Charging Technologies: Inductive, magnetic-resonant, and capacitive charging are the near-field charging technologies for BEVs. Inductive Charging An electromagnetic field is used to transfer power from a transmitter pad to a receiver pad during inductive charging, which is one of the most recent near-field charging methods for modern transportation. This process is seen in Fig. 1. In these systems, maximizing power transfer while maintaining high efficiency is one of the key factors to take into account both during the design phase and during operation. These charging solutions have a maximum efficiency of 90% for a distance of 4 cm and a power transfer capability of 3 to 60 kW over a short distance of 4 to 10 cm, respectively.   Fig. 1: Inductive charging topology for BEVs Source: IEEE Access   Also, it's crucial to control the EV power bus voltage to extend the battery's lifespan. This can be done by simultaneously controlling the switching frequency and conversion ratio of the primary-side converter (i.e., the high-frequency (HF) AC-AC converter at the transmitter pad) and the secondary-side converter (e.g., full-bridge, dual-active bridge DC-DC converter, etc., at the receiver pad).   One of the most important steps in creating a reliable and effective wireless power transfer (WPT) system for charging the batteries of BEVs is the construction of an appropriate power pad. WPT systems still face a number of difficulties despite being employed in many BEV applications. These difficulties include the designs of the power pad and the coil, electromagnetic field protection, HF power converters, metal object detection, etc. Magnetic-Resonant (MR) Charging: The resonant frequency can be increased by adding compensation capacitors, which results in a large transmission distance capability (i.e., 1 to 5 m), making MR charging, as illustrated in Fig. 2, far more efficient than inductive charging. Up to 100 kW of power can be sent over a distance via MR charging. There are four phases to these charging technologies that can be used for installation.   Fig. 2. Magnetic-resonant charging topology for BEVs Source: IEEE Access   Simple residential systems in Phase 1, parking lots in Phase 2, on-street parking in Phase 3, and dynamic charging systems in Phase 4. (future technology for highways). Phases 2 through 4 require government assistance, even though step 1 seems to be widely used in residential BEVs. For instance, the UK invests 40 million pounds in MR-based charging technology research, which includes looking into wireless charging options for street and commercial vehicles like ride-sharing vehicles, delivery vehicles, and so on.   Also recently shown by Oak Ridge National Laboratory is an MR-based wireless charging system with a 120 kW output, which is comparable to a Tesla supercharger. It has a high efficiency of 90% and can transmit a high power of 100 kW across a medium distance of 1 m. Also, Qualcomm built a 100-meter test track in France that includes a 20 kW wireless charging system. Due to the previously mentioned promising characteristics of MR charging, it has garnered greater interest than inductive charging. Capacitive Charging Unlike the inductive and MR charging technologies, capacitive charging can be produced using an electric field. For this reason, two metallic plates with integrated transmitter and receiver pads can be connected to a power source or load, as shown in Fig. 3. These two plates function similarly to two capacitors connected in parallel, which allows for the generation of an electric field between them and the induction of electrical current in the receiver pad.   The rate of change of the electric field between the transmitter and receiver pads is equivalent to this induced current. Hence, by raising the frequency given by the utility grid, power converters like resonant-based converters can be used to raise the rate of the electric field. Their maximal efficiency, transmission distance, and power transfer capacity can all exceed 7 kW, 12 cm, and 80%, respectively.   Fig. 3. Capacitive charging topology for BEVs Source: IEEE Access Medium-Field Charging Technologies Mechanical force serves as the primary energy-carrying medium in the theory behind medium-field charging technologies (also known as magnetic gear-based charging technology). They can be used in low-power charging applications with a 1.5–3 kW range. The magnetic-gear charging mechanism for BEVs is depicted in Fig. 4.   Fig. 4. Medium-field charging topology for BEVs Source: IEEE Access   According to the diagram, the mechanical interaction between two synchronized permanent magnets that are arranged side by side is the basis for this charging technology's operation. They have a medium-range power transfer capability of 3 kW (i.e., 15 cm). Magnetic gear-based charging prototypes that could transfer 1.6 kW across 5 cm with 81% efficiency had been shown as of late 2009 in a number of well-documented papers. Far-Field Charging Technologies This section covers the electromagnetic radiation (EMR)-based far-field charging methods for BEVs, including laser, microwave, and radio wave charging. Laser Charging For the past few years, laser power transmission has been employed for charging reasons in only a small number of real-world applications (such as drones, orbital vehicles, autonomous rovers, etc.). This kind of charging technique uses a distributed laser charging (DLC) transmitter to generate a resonant beam that can have a frequency as high as 3.59 x 1014 Hz, which is then picked up by a DLC receiver. The received beam is then supplied through a DC/DC power converter, as seen in Fig. 5(a), to regulate the output voltage for battery charging needs.   Fig. 5. Wireless charging topology via laser (a) Laser charging for BEVs (b) Future technology of laser charging for satellites and orbital vehicles. Source: IEEE Access   A laser-based system that can transmit 10 MW of power across a distance of up to 10 km with a maximum efficiency of 37% is being developed by the JAXA institute. The charging connection should be considered, though, as losing communication between the transmitter and receiver pads results in no charging; therefore, it is important to maintain consistent charging with good charging capability. One of the next technologies for wireless laser charging is depicted in Fig. 5(b) and might be used for BEVs, solar-powered planetary and satellite applications, orbital vehicles, etc. Microwave Charging Applications involving the transfer of power over a long distance (i.e., 100 km), including platforms based on balloons, helicopters, experimental airplanes, experimental vehicles, etc., have all been tested with microwave charging technology. The highest amount of transmitted energy was attained in an experiment conducted by the US Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1975. The second attempt, tested by N. Kaya, successfully transmitted energy between two objects in space. The first wirelessly propelled aircraft was then launched using a ground-based microwave emitter in Canada in 1987.   Fig. 6. Wireless charging topology via microwave (a) Microwave charging for BEVs (b) future technology of microwave charging for satellites and orbital vehicles. Source: IEEE Access   An electric vehicle system is shown in Fig. 6(a) being powered up using microwaves with a maximum frequency of 2.45 GHz that are produced by Magnetron. As stated, the corresponding power, distance, and maximum efficiency are set at 10 kW, 5 m, and 80%, respectively, for such applications. Unfortunately, BEVs have not yet widely benefited from this technology. The disadvantage of this charging technique is that it stops charging when connectivity between the transmitter pad and receiver pad is lost.    Large antennas, direct line-of-sight transmission routes, and sophisticated tracking systems are also necessary. As seen in Fig. 6(b), wireless charging through microwaves may one day be utilized for applications like electric vehicles and orbital vehicles. Radio Wave Charging The radio wave charging method, which is based on electromagnetic field transmission, is another form of far-field charging technology. With this kind of charging technique, a rectenna that consists of a high frequency filter, a rectifier, and a low frequency filter can be used to capture the power transmitted from the transmitter.    Fig. 7. Wireless charging topology via radio wave for energy harvesting purposes. Source: IEEE Access   As seen in Fig. 7, the rectifier feeds a DC chopper to deliver the desired DC voltage and charging current to the battery. The efficiency of radio wave charging is currently too low in contrast to laser and microwave charging technologies, and as a result, it needs extensive research to be able to satisfy the required power efficiency for BEV charging. Also, an operator must make sure that the charging connection is not lost in order for a radio wave charging system to maintain adequate charging capabilities, as any loss of connection prevents charging.   Summarizing with Key Points: Some of the takeaways from the article are as follows:   Wireless charging methods can be categorized into three categories based on the transmitted distance: near-field, medium-field, and far-field charging. Near-field charging technologies include inductive, magnetic-resonant, and capacitive charging. Key factors to consider when designing and operating these systems include power pad design, coil design and electromagnetic field protection. Other key factors to include are high frequency power converters, metal object detection, etc. Far-field charging technologies include microwave and radio wave charging methods. Microwave charging can be used for electric vehicles as well as satellites and orbital vehicles.  Radio wave charging is based on electromagnetic field transmission and uses a rectenna to capture the power transmitted from the transmitter.    This blog post is part of a full research article from IEEE Access.   The featured image is courtesy of Midjourney.

Train delays due to leaves on the line could be a thing of the past if a prototype developed at the University of Birmingham is adopted by railway networks.Every year, thousands of commuters endure the frustration of Autumn delays caused by the accumulation of leafy slush on train tracks – and these problems usually reach their peak in mid-November, when leaf loss is coupled with high levels of moisture in the air or on the ground.Lee Chapman, Professor of Climate Resilience from the University, was inspired by the Internet of Things, which uses a range of innovative power, communication and sensing technology to aggregate real-time, on the ground, data.Funded by EPSRC and the Rail Safety and Standards Board, he worked with Alta Innovations, the University of Birmingham's technology transfer company, to transform the concept into a reality. His new technology, called AutumnSense, uses low-cost sensors to continuously measure the level of moisture on the railway line at potentially thousands of sites across the network. By linking this data with a leaf-fall forecast, operators can identify where and when the risk is greatest. This allows the precise and efficient use of automated treatment trains, which can clear the lines before the morning rush hour starts. His team are now testing the next element of the solution which is a low-cost method to count the number of leaves remaining on the trees.Professor Chapman's team had previously developed low-cost devices that are fitted to lamp-posts, and transmit data on road surface temperatures, to show precisely where road gritting is needed, and where it isn't. The road technology, called WinterSense, is currently being tested by commercial partners and is expected to be in mass production by the end of this winter.Professor Chapman said, "One of the major issues with road and rail safety is that hazardous conditions are usually highly localised. For remedial actions to be efficient, and demonstrate 'best value' for the taxpayer, resources should be deployed where they are needed, rather than in a blanket fashion."He is marketing AutumnSense and WinterSense through AltaSense, an operating division of Alta Innovations, and hopes to incorporate by Autumn 2017.He said, "Even though leaf loss and damp conditions can largely be predicted - and despite automated treatment trains working round the clock from October to December - a windy, rainy night still causes havoc for commuters. We have run an initial trial of AutumnSense on a stretch of London Underground tracks that are above ground, and are hoping to move quickly towards a fuller network wide trial."Wet leaves pose a very real safety challenge for train operators, potentially doubling the breaking distance and causing signalling issues, or 'disappearing trains' on the rail control systems due to the electrically insulating effect of the leaves which can prevent operation of track circuits. Leaves on the line are only an issue when they are mixed with moisture or dew, creating a slippery, Teflon-like substance. Reference:KY45-D7E-1KY45-BU-27135-000KY45-1005447-1 

In a development beneficial for both industry and environment, UC Santa Barbara researchers have created a high-quality coating for organic electronics that promises to decrease processing time as well as energy requirements."It's faster, and it's nontoxic," said Kollbe Ahn, a research faculty member at UCSB's Marine Science Institute and corresponding author of a paper published in Nano Letters.In the manufacture of polymer (also known as "organic") electronics—the technology behind flexible displays and solar cells—the material used to direct and move current is of supreme importance. Since defects reduce efficiency and functionality, special attention must be paid to quality, even down to the molecular level.Often that can mean long processing times, or relatively inefficient processes. It can also mean the use of toxic substances. Alternatively, manufacturers can choose to speed up the process, which could cost energy or quality.Fortunately, as it turns out, efficiency, performance and sustainability don't always have to be traded against each other in the manufacture of these electronics. Looking no further than the campus beach, the UCSB researchers have found inspiration in the mollusks that live there. Mussels, which have perfected the art of clinging to virtually any surface in the intertidal zone, serve as the model for a molecularly smooth, self-assembled monolayer for high-mobility polymer field-effect transistors—in essence, a surface coating that can be used in the manufacture and processing of the conductive polymer that maintains its efficiency.More specifically, according to Ahn, it was the mussel's adhesion mechanism that stirred the researchers' interest. "We're inspired by the proteins at the interface between the plaque and substrate," he said.Before mussels attach themselves to the surfaces of rocks, pilings or other structures found in the inhospitable intertidal zone, they secrete proteins through the ventral grove of their feet, in an incremental fashion. In a step that enhances bonding performance, a thin priming layer of protein molecules is first generated as a bridge between the substrate and other adhesive proteins in the plaques that tip the byssus threads of their feet to overcome the barrier of water and other impurities.That type of zwitterionic molecule—with both positive and negative charges—inspired by the mussel's native proteins (polyampholytes), can self-assemble and form a sub-nano thin layer in water at ambient temperature in a few seconds. The defect-free monolayer provides a platform for conductive polymers in the appropriate direction on various dielectric surfaces.Current methods to treat silicon surfaces (the most common dielectric surface), for the production of organic field-effect transistors, requires a batch processing method that is relatively impractical, said Ahn. Although heat can hasten this step, it involves the use of energy and increases the risk of defects.With this bio-inspired coating mechanism, a continuous roll-to-roll dip coating method of producing organic electronic devices is possible, according to the researchers. It also avoids the use of toxic chemicals and their disposal, by replacing them with water."The environmental significance of this work is that these new bio-inspired primers allow for nanofabrication on silicone dioxide surfaces in the absence of organic solvents, high reaction temperatures and toxic reagents," said co-author Roscoe Lindstadt, a graduate student researcher in UCSB chemistry professor Bruce Lipshutz's lab. "In order for practitioners to switch to newer, more environmentally benign protocols, they need to be competitive with existing ones, and thankfully device performance is improved by using this 'greener' method."Reference:KY56-2N3811KY56- EMX2T2RKY0-PEMZ1,115 

The Internet of Things (IoT) describes devices and applications that gather and distribute data for everyday life. Sensor devices and processes that will underpin the IoT need to be small, versatile and energy efficient. Now A*STAR researchers have developed a sensor processor node that is capable of intelligent sensing while using ultra-low levels of power.IoT applications range from biomedical signal processing to uses in vehicle-status monitoring and environmental sensing. Most IoT devices are tiny in size, which means that they typically consume only a small amount of power. This is particularly challenging for processors that sample the information from sensors and analyze the data, as their power demands, in contrast, are intense, explains Xin Liu and Jun Zhou from the research team. "The limits on the space for power sources such as batteries leads to a critical power budget at the level of the micro Watt," says Liu. "At this level, processor design becomes extremely challenging if we are to achieve ultra-low power consumption whilst maintaining comprehensive functions."Typically, the lower the operating voltage, the lower is the overall power consumption. The Institute of Microelectronics research team adopted ultra-low voltage circuitry and system design techniques, and further developed diverse hardware accelerators for high-energy efficient signal processing of sensor information.A further key advance is possible by taking a more intelligent approach to the signal acquisition, by utilizing the knowledge about the specific sensor signals. In many applications, sensor signals take the form of sudden spikes, which are best-processed using cognitive sampling technologies. The advantage of those techniques is that they reduce the amount of data that needs to be processed by about 40 per cent which greatly reduces the power consumption.Using such techniques, the researchers were able to develop a sensor node processor design that can operate on ultra-low operating voltages as low as 0.5 volts, and that use only 29 to 39 pico Joule per operation cycle.The design represents a step toward a more comprehensive set of hardware systems, explains Liu."Emerging IoT devices play a key role to support the Singapore Smart Nation initiative in a wide range of applications," says Liu. "Our research team aims to develop high energy efficiency hardware circuits and systems, to achieve high performance, artificial intelligence, high energy efficiency, and a high security level."Reference:KY45-D7E-1KY45-BU-27135-000KY45-1005447-1