Cambridge University

The UK’s University of Cambridge and University of Southampton have been named as participants in the PIXEurope consortium, a collaboration between European research organizations that is developing and manufacturing prototypes of their products based on photonic chips. The consortium is supported by €380 million in total funding.

The Cambridge Graphene Centre and Cornerstone Photonics Innovation Centre at the University of Southampton will partner with members from across Europe to host a pilot line, coordinated by Spain’s Institute of Photonic Sciences, combining state-of-the-art equipment and expertise from 20 research organizations across 11 countries. The PIXEurope pilot line aims to encourage the adoption of cutting-edge photonic technologies across more industries to boost their efficiency.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge, CNRS and Imperial College London have used machine learning-driven molecular dynamics simulations to explore how defects in the surface of two-dimensional sheets alter ripple effects. 

They found that above a critical concentration of defects, free-standing graphene sheets undergo a dynamic transition from freely propagating to static ripples. The team's computational approach captures the dynamics with atomic resolution, and reveals that the transition is driven by elastic interactions between defects. The strength of these interactions is found to vary across defect types and a unifying set of principles was identified, driving the dynamic-to-static transition in 2D materials.

Researchers from the UK's University of Cambridge and China's Capital Medical University and Beihang University have developed a washable, skin-compatible smart garment sleep monitoring system that uses graphene sensors to capture local skin strain signals under weak device–skin coupling conditions without positioning or skin preparation requirements. 

The monitoring of sleep behavior begins by detecting subtle vibrations at the extrinsic laryngeal muscle, which are induced by physiological vibrations emanating from various anatomical locations such as the velum, oropharynx, tongue, and epiglottis. These vibrations are then captured by a six-channel strain sensor array printed onto the collar of a garment. The signals from the channel with the strongest response are processed by a deep learning neural network, SleepNet, which is designed for recognizing and analyzing sleep patterns. Image from PNAS

The comfortable, washable ‘smart pajamas' can monitor sleep disorders such as sleep apnea at home, without the need for sticky patches, cumbersome equipment or a visit to a specialist sleep clinic.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge, University College London, Imperial College London, Kumoh National Institute of Technology (KIT) and Beihang University have developed a wearable ‘smart’ choker for speech recognition, that has the potential to redefine the field of silent speech interface (SSI) thanks to embedded ultrasensitive textile strain sensor technology.

Where verbal communication is hindered, such as in locations with lots of background noise or where an individual has an existing speech impairment, SSI systems are a cutting-edge solution, enabling verbal communication without vocalization. As such, it is a type of electronic lip-reading using human-computer interaction. In their recent research, the scientists applied an overlying structured graphene layer to an integrated textile strain sensor for robust speech recognition performance, even in noisy environments.

A team of researchers from the University of Cambridge, RWTH Aachen University and the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan has developed a methodology for simultaneously optimizing the growth and the transfer process of graphene, showing that it is possible to dry-transfer graphene with high-yield, if the crystallographic orientation of the growth surface is chosen appropriately.

Graphene often needs to be transferred from the growth substrate (typically copper) to a final substrate where components can be built. However, current transfer approaches either lead to a substantial degradation of the crystal quality or are not compatible with high-volume manufacturing. Moreover, while graphene has great potential for next generation electronics, the gap between the performance of “hero devices” realized in research labs and what can be reproducibly fabricated with scalable approaches remains large. This is why high-end electronic devices enabled by graphene are still not on the market – and why scalability is such a challenge in terms of making the most of this nanomaterial.

Versarien has announced the completion of the construction phase of a civil engineering project being undertaken by the Company with a subsidiary of Costain Group.

Versarien has been working with Costain to develop designs for, and bring into production, a 3D printed concrete headwall for use in highway construction projects, part of the Digital Roads of the Future Partnership, a collaboration led by the University of Cambridge, Costain and National Highways, of which Versarien is a partner.

Graphene Flagship Partners University of Cambridge (UK) and Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB, Belgium) collaborated with the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC, United Arab Emirates) and the European Space Agency (ESA) to test graphene on the Moon. This joint effort sees the involvement of many international partners, such as Airbus Defense and Space, Khalifa University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Technische Universität Dortmund, University of Oslo, and Tohoku University.

The MASER15 launch. Credit: John-Charles Dupin/Eurekalert

The Rashid rover is planned to be launched today (30 November 2022) from Cape Canaveral in Florida and will land on a geologically rich and, as yet, only remotely explored area on the Moon’s nearside – the side that always faces the Earth. During one lunar day, equivalent to approximately 14 days on Earth, Rashid will move on the lunar surface investigating interesting geological features.

An international team of researchers, including ones from Aalto University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Zhejiang University, Sichuan University,  Oregon State University, Yonsei University and the University of Cambridge, have designed a miniaturized spectrometer made of a ‘sandwich’ of different ingredients, including graphene, molybdenum disulfide, and tungsten diselenide. 

The spectrometer reportedly breaks all current resolution records, and does so in a much smaller package, thanks to computational programs and artificial intelligence. The new miniaturized devices could be used in a broad range of sectors, from checking the quality of food to analyzing starlight or detecting faint clues of life in outer space.

GamGraPhic, a Cambridge University spin out developing graphene-based photonics technology, announced a raise of £813,475 (over USD$981,000) from Wealth Club clients through the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS). Proceeds from the funding will be used to complete fabrication and testing of the demonstration devices.

This takes its total amount raised to £1.26 million, which has been raised through an equity funding round from existing and new investors led by Frontier IP and Wealth Club. A previous funding round, in September 2021, raised £1.6 million, valuing the company at £7.2 million.

Researchers from CNR-IFN, Politecnico di Milano, the University of Pisa, the Graphene Center of Cambridge (UK) and ICN2 of Barcelona (Spain) have shown that the relaxation time of graphene charge carriers can be significantly modified by applying an external electrical field.

Graphene is able to efficiently absorb light from the visible to the infrared through the photoexcitation of its charge carriers. After light absorption, its photoexcited charge carriers cool down to the initial equilibrium state in a few picoseconds, corresponding to a millionth of a millionth of a second. The remarkable speed of this relaxation process makes graphene particularly promising for a number of technological applications, including light detectors, sources and modulators.