ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Yuan-Yu Jau is on a quest to build the world’s smallest atomic clock, a device that measures time with extreme accuracy. If successful, he and his team at Sandia National Laboratories will have made one smaller than a sugar cube. But he’s not the only one pushing the limits of tiny timepieces. […]
Tag Archives: MESA
World’s fastest burst-mode X-ray camera hits the road
March 13, 2023 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Nuclear reactions are fast. Really fast. Faster than billionths of a second. Your best shot at catching one is with a high-speed X-ray camera that can only be obtained from the Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories. But these cameras could soon become more widely available. Sandia has partnered with Albuquerque-based startup Advanced […]
Sandia-developed solar cell technology reaches space
September 29, 2021 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Somewhere among the glitter of the night sky is a small satellite powered by innovative, next-generation solar cell technology developed at Sandia National Laboratories. mPower Technology’s DragonSCALES, consist of small, highly interconnected photovoltaic cells formerly known as solar glitter at Sandia. They are orbiting Earth for the first time on a Lynk […]
World’s smallest, best acoustic amplifier emerges from 50-year-old hypothesis
June 2, 2021 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories have built the world’s smallest and best acoustic amplifier. And they did it using a concept that was all but abandoned for almost 50 years. According to a paper published May 13 in Nature Communications, the device is more than 10 times more effective than the earlier […]
Rare open-access quantum computer now operational
March 15, 2021 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A new Department of Energy open-access quantum computing testbed is ready for the public. Scientists from Indiana University recently became the first team to begin using Sandia National Laboratories’ Quantum Scientific Computing Open User Testbed, or QSCOUT. Quantum computers are poised to become major technological drivers over the coming decades. But to […]
National security chip plant gets an upgrade
October 3, 2019 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories has completed phase one of an anticipated three-year upgrade at its plant responsible for making integrated circuits, similar to computer chips. The facility is now fully compatible with industry-standard, 8-inch silicon wafers — thin, round starting materials used for making chips. Previously, Sandia used 6-inch wafers. Supporting the new […]
Generating electrical power from waste heat
July 9, 2018 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Directly converting electrical power to heat is easy. It regularly happens in your toaster, that is, if you make toast regularly. The opposite, converting heat into electrical power, isn’t so easy. Researchers from Sandia National Laboratories have developed a tiny silicon-based device that can harness what was previously called waste heat and […]
Three Sandia engineers recognized for contributions to advancing women in STEM
October 24, 2017 – 11:30 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Three Sandia National Laboratories engineers have been recognized by the Society of Women Engineers as part of its annual awards program for their support in the enrichment and advancement of women in engineering. Janet Williams won the Distinguished Service Award, which recognizes members who have made significant contributions to SWE for at […]
MESA complex starts largest production series in its history
March 25, 2015 – 11:45 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories has begun making silicon wafers for three nuclear weapon modernization programs, the largest production series in the history of its Microsystems and Engineering Sciences Applications complex. MESA’s silicon fab in October began producing base wafers for Application-Specific Integrated Circuits for the B61-12 Life Extension Program, W88 Alteration 370 and […]
Watching neurons fire from a front-row seat
July 28, 2014 – 11:55 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — They are with us every moment of every day, controlling every action we make, from the breath we breathe to the words we speak, and yet there is still a lot we don’t know about the cells that make up our nervous systems. When things go awry and nerve cells don’t communicate […]
Modern-day cleanroom invented by Sandia physicist still used 50 years later
November 26, 2012 – 10:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — When Willis Whitfield invented the modern-day cleanroom 50 years ago, researchers and industrialists didn’t believe it at first. But within a few short years, $50 billion worth of laminar-flow cleanrooms were being built worldwide and the invention is used in hospitals, laboratories and manufacturing plants today. The retired Sandia National Laboratories physicist, […]