The Physics of Materials How Science Improves Our Lives (1997) / Chapter Skim
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2 Technology in Daily Life
2 Technology in Daily Life
Pages 4-13
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As a seasoned business traveler, she has with her all the tools she needs for her normal daily business. She picks up her cellular telephone and dials her son's pager.
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A potential high-volume application for such transistors is in transmitter power amplifiers for wireless base stations. Pushing the limits of semiconductor materials technology is essential for increasing the speed of transistors and advancing our ability to modulate lasers for high-speed optical information transmission.
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Toclay,significant improvements in chemical synthesis ancl a growing collaborative effort between polymer chemists ancl materials scientists have resulted in the availability of extremely well-clefinecl materials with novel properties. Given the sophistication of current polymer synthesis, it is now possible to systematically test hypotheses about how a polymer's properties are related to its structure ancl to design macromolecules to form specified microstructures ancl provide desired physical properties.
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Such advances hold new promise for military and space communications, for optical recording and display, and even for longer-lived, more efficient, and more reliable traffic lights. FIGURE 2.5 Blue Light emission from a gallium nitride semiconductor LED.
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The secret in making an artificial material compatible with living substances is in discovering the ways of as oft condensed matter,"the plastic materials that act neither as solicis nor liquicis, whose properties can be modulated by a combination of chemical synthesis ancl physical treatment. The next time you have a front tooth fillecl, notice the range of colors ancl textures that the dentist is able to create to match that of your particular tooth.
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We can now build optical integrated circuits for communications networks,analogous to the electronic integrated circuits used in electronics. Fiber optical amplifiers are just now being installed into optical networks, although the fundamental materials research that enabled this development began 30 years ago.
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Through the development of a detailed understanding ofthe soliclification process, it is now possible to cast an entire turbine blacle, with the very intricate shape shown in Figure 2.9, as a single crystal. Progress in alloy design and processing has led to a continuing increase in the allowable operating temperature of the turbine blacles.
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From page 11... ...
Research and development leading to stronger magnets has resulted in a steady decrease in the cost,size,and weight of motors in such diverse devices as automobile starters, cordless shavers, hand-held drills, household appliances,toys,and disk drives (again) in laptop computers.
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The computer that analyzed the data from the MRI and CAT scans, and the computers that were involved in essentially every aspect of the airplane trip making the reservations, assuring security at the airport, determining the flight path, and so on are based on SILICON fLCHNOLOG~ Well into her flight and resting briefly before her important meeting, the woman relaxes in her seat and reflects on just how much of what she has taken for granted in the past several hours would have been unthinkable only a few years ago: modern cars and airplanes, telecommunications, modern medicine, the power and portability of computers. Our lives have been changed by CMMP research and for the better.
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In the early 1 980s researchers unveiled the first micromachinecl motor, demonstrating that the tools,facilities, ancl infrastructure developed to fabricate microelectronic circuits could also be used to build miniature mechanical systems. Though many research problems must be surmounted before Microsystems can become as ubiquitous as the integrated circuit,this clemonstration raised the hope that complex Microsystems that integrate physical ancl chemical sensing ancl mechanical response with control ancl communications electronics can be mass produced at low cost.
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