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A revolutionary optical technology designed to restore peripheral vision in patients with eye diseases through the integration of optical metasurfaces on eyewear.

      Microwave impedance microscopy (MIM) is an emerging scanning probe technique that enables non-contact, nanoscale measurement of local complex permittivity. By integrating an ultrasensitive, phase-resolved microwave sensor with a near-field probe, MIM has made significant contributions to diverse fundamental and applied fields. These include strongly correlated and topological materials, two-dimensional and biological systems, as well as semiconductor, acoustic, and MEMS devices. Concurrently, notable progress has been made in refining the MIM technique itself and broadening its capabilities. However, existing literature has focused exclusively on linear MIM based on homodyne architectures, where reflected or transmitted microwave is demodulated and detected at the incident frequency. As such, linear MIM lacks the ability to probe local electrical nonlinearity, which is widely present, for example, in dielectrics, semiconductors, and superconductors. Elucidating such nonlinearity with nanoscale spatial resolution would provide critical insights into semiconductor processing and diagnostics as well as fundamental phenomena like local symmetry breaking and phase separation.       To address this shortcoming, UC Berkeley researchers have introduced a novel methodology and apparatus for performing multi-harmonic MIM to locally probe electrical nonlinearities at the nanoscale. The technique achieves unprecedented spatial and spectral resolution in characterizing complex materials. It encompasses both hardware configurations enabling multi-harmonic data acquisition and the theoretical and calibration protocols to transform raw signals into accurate measures of intrinsic nonlinear permittivity and conductivity. The advance extends existing linear MIM into the nonlinear domain, providing a powerful, versatile, and minimally invasive tool for semiconductor diagnostics, materials research, and device development.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed a photothermal patterning flow cell that enables precise and efficient patterning of polymer films, compatible with existing cleanroom photolithography equipment.

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Researchers at the University of California, Davis (“UC Davis”) have developed an optical absorber/emitter for thermophotovoltaics application with a tunable emission wavelength.

      Goniophotometers measure the luminance distribution of light emitted or reflected from a point in space or a material sample. Increasingly there is a need for such measurements in real-time, and in real-world situations, for example, for daylight monitoring or harvesting in commercial and residential buildings, design and optimization of greenhouses, and testing laser and display components for AR/VR and autonomous vehicles, to name a few. However, current goniophotometers are ill-suited for real-time measurements; mechanical scanning goniophotometers have a large form factor and slow acquisition times. Parallel goniophotometers take faster measurements but suffer from complexity, expense, and limited angular view ranges (dioptric angular mapping systems) or strict form factor and sample positioning requirements (catadioptric angular mapping systems). Overall, current goniophotometers are therefore limited to in-lab environments.      To overcome these challenges, UC Berkeley researchers have invented an optical sensor  for parallel goniophotometry that is compact, cost-effective, and capable of real-time daylight monitoring. The novel optical design addresses key size and flexibility constraints of current state-of-the-art catadioptric angular mapping systems, while maximizing the view angle measurement at 90°. This camera-like, angular mapping device could be deployed at many points within a building to measure reflected light from fenestrations, in agricultural greenhouses or solar farms for real-time monitoring, and in any industry benefitting from real-time daylight data.

The plant species Banksia speciosa relies on wildfires to propagate its seeds. The specialized coating on the seeds, along with the follicle structure, can protect seeds from temperatures over 1,000°C. Inspired by this coating on the seeds of the Banksia plants, researchers at UC Irvine have developed novel, bioinspired coatings, materials, and structures for thermal management, enabling development of cost-effective and ecological thermal management systems.

Currently, thin films of single-crystalline (SC) alloy material are obtained using costly SC substrates made of a material chemically and physically compatible to that of a SC thin film that is deposited on the SC substrate. Formation of SC thin films of alloy materials on SC substrates are typically achieved through fairly expensive processes such as epitaxy. As a result, the use of a thin film of SC alloy materials or respective multiple thin films is contingent upon the availability of an appropriate SC substrate thereby severely limiting its utilization. Thus, there is a need for alternative methods of forming one or more thin films of SC alloy materials on arbitrary substrates. Crystallization of thin film materials by exploiting laser-induced crystallization has been advancing for the past four decades. This unique thin film technique has been predominantly used in processing thin film materials made of a single chemical element, with a significant emphasis on thin film materials comprised of a single chemical element like silicon (Si), used for the development of thin film transistors. While this approach has worked well for thin film materials comprised of a single chemical element like silicon (Si) it is not easily extended for use with thin film materials containing multiple chemical elements (e.g., metal oxides). For certain bulk manufacturing applications, it would be desirable to efficiently form thin structures on non-single-crystalline (NSC) substrates, such as glass, or on SC substrates that are highly-incompatible, such as silicon. For such applications, it is highly desirable that the treated SC alloy layer(s) have chemical compositions not significantly different from those of their original chemical compositions.

Plastics are essential for the modern world but are also non-sustainable products of the petrochemical industry that negatively impact our health, environment, and food chain. Natural biogenic plastics, such as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), are readily biodegradable, can be produced more sustainably, and offer an attractive alternative. The global demand for bioplastics is increasing with the 2019 market value of $8.3B expected to reach a compound annual growth rate of 16.1% from 2020-2027 (https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/bioplastics-industry). However, current PHA production is constrained by the underlying physiology of the microorganisms which produce them, meaning bioplastic production is currently limited to inefficient, batch fermentation processes that are difficult to scale.To address this problem, UC Berkeley researchers have developed a new system for PHA production wherein the PHA are generated continuously throughout microorganism growth lifecycles. The invention allows these sustainable bioplastics to be produced via precision continuous fermentation technology, a scalable and efficient approach.

For decades, researchers have been developing “cool roof” materials to cool buildings and save on energy usage from air conditioning. Cool roof materials are engineered to maximize infrared thermal emission, allowing heat to be effectively radiated into outer space and the building to cool down. Conventional cool roof materials emit heat even when it is cold outside, which exacerbates space heating costs and can outweigh energy-saving benefits. A temperature adaptive radiative coating (TARC) material was developed in 2021 that adapts its thermal emittance to ambient temperatures using metal-insulator transitions in vanadium oxide. TARC is projected to outperform existing roof materials in most climate areas, but the complicated structure required high-cost fabrication techniques such as photolithography, pulsed laser deposition, and XeF2 etching, which are not scalable.To address this problem, UC Berkeley researchers have developed a new scalable temperature-adaptive radiative coating (STARC). STARC has the same thermal emittance switching capability as TARC, allowing the thermal emittance to be switched between high- and low- emittance states at a preset temperature. However, STARC can be produced using high-throughput, roll-to-roll methods and low-cost materials. The STARC material also has an improved lifetime. As an added benefit, while cool roof materials are often engineered with uniformly low solar-absorption, the color and solar absorption of STARC can be tuned for aesthetic purposes or to meet local climate-specific needs.

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With the two-dimensional scaling of silicon field-effect transistors reaching fundamental limits, new functional improvements to transistors, as well as novel computing paradigms and vertical device integration at the architecture-level, are currently under intense study. Gate oxides play a critical role in this endeavor, as it’s a common performance booster for all devices, including silicon, new channel materials with potential for higher performance, and even materials suitable for three-dimensional integrated transistors.With the scaling of lateral dimensions in advanced transistors, an increased gate capacitance is desirable both to retain the control of the gate electrode over the channel and to reduce the operating voltage. To pursue these performance gains, UC Berkeley researchers invented a new heterostructure insulator material where: 1) the material possesses specific ferroic order such as ferroelectricity/anti-ferroelectricity or a mixture of both; 2) the overall dielectric property such as the permittivity is determined by the stacking order of different layers rather than exact volume fraction of the constituents; and 3) the material is composed of one or several repetition of ultra thin superlattice periods ranging from a few angstroms to 3 nm.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed a method for converting high molecular weight and complex globular proteins such as soy and pea into amphiphilic and amphoteric colloids, sub-microns fibers, and microfibrils important to multiple consumer and industrial applications.

This invention is a structured product comprising at least two layers comprising a first layer and a second layer.  The first layer comprises at least one material having a temperature-dependent (e.g., a positive temperature-dependent or negative temperature-dependent) wavelength-integrated emissivity (ε); the second layer comprises at least one reflective material that is reflective to light in an IR spectrum, for example, in an 8-14 μm wavelength range; and the structured product has a positive temperature dependent wavelength-integrated emissivity.

UCLA researchers in the Department of Pediatrics have developed a thin and flexible stent that can be implanted in small vessels in the neurovascular system. Normal 0 false false false EN-US ZH-CN X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}

UCLA researchers in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering have developed an energy efficient smart window coating with wide light bandwidth and long cycle lifetimes.

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are 2D or 3D extended periodic networks assembled from symmetric, shape persistent molecular 5 building blocks through strong, directional bonds. Traditional COF growth strategies heavily rely on reversible condensation reactions that guide the reticulation toward a desired thermodynamic equilibrium structure. The requirement for dynamic error correction, however, limits the choice of building blocks and thus the associated mechanical and electronic properties imbued within the periodic lattice of the COF.   UC Berkeley researchers have demonstrated the growth of crystalline 2D COFs from a polydisperse macromolecule derived from single-layer graphene, bottom-up synthesized quasi one-dimensional (1D) graphene nanoribbons (GNRs). X-ray scattering and transmission electron microscopy revealed that 2D sheets of GNR-COFs self-assembled at a liquid-l quid interface stack parallel to the layer boundary and exhibit an orthotropic crystal packing. Liquid-phase exfoliation of multilayer GNR-COF crystals gave access to large area bilayer and trilayer cGNR-COF films. The functional integration of extended 1D materials into crystalline COFs greatly expands the structural complexity and the scope of mechanical and physical materials properties.