Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)

Making frequency-hopping radios practicalNew hardware could lead to wireless devices that identify and exploit unused transmission frequencies, using radio spectrum much more efficiently.

New material harvests energy from water vaporPolymer film could be used in artificial muscle and to power micro- and nanoelectronic devices.

Making ‘nanospinning’ practicalNanofibers have a dizzying range of possible applications, but they’ve been prohibitively expensive to make. MIT researchers hope to change that.

MIT-developed ‘microthrusters’ could propel small satellitesAs small as a penny, these thrusters run on jets of ion beams.

How to corner the MEMS marketGovernment investment in the manufacture of micromachines could pay huge dividends, but in the meantime, MIT researchers are developing new fabrication techniques.

Transistors promise more powerful logic, more logical powerResearch could affect U.S. manufacturing indirectly, by helping introduce products difficult to build elsewhere, and directly, by reducing production costs.

Tiny 3-D chipsMIT researchers develop a new approach to producing three-dimensional microchips.

Bulović named director of the Microsystems Technology LaboratoriesAssumes role previously held by Chandrakasan.

Shake, rattle and … power up?A new MEMS device generates energy from small vibrations.

Mysterious quantum forces unraveledMIT researchers find a way to calculate the effects of Casimir forces, offering a way to keep micromachines’ parts from sticking together.

Weinstein receives DARPA Young Faculty Award

Microsensors without microfabricationBy building a six-dimensional motion sensor from a tiny metal bead in a tiny hole, MIT researchers introduce a new class of microdevice.

Mechanical devices stamped on plasticMicroelectromechanical devices gave us the Wii and the digital movie projector. MIT researchers have found a new way to make them.