Penn State’s Role in Setting a Course for America’s Semiconductor Future

Penn State's role

By Jamie Oberdick

Semiconductors are a big reason as to why you are reading this. This is not a reference to your interest in semiconductors as a subject, but the actual production of this website. Even if you are reading the print version of this article and not the online version, semiconductors played a role in creating that hard copy via word processing, graphic design, digital photography, and even the printer that printed the pages. Such is the ubiquitousness of semiconductor chips in our current society.

Improved, self-healing medical sensor responds to temperature, adapts to skin

image of a sensor

By Sarah Small

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — For wearable electronics to live up to their promise for health care monitoring, they need to do at least two things: transform from rigid to soft to accommodate changing structural needs, and heal their own normal wear-and-tear. With the help of liquid metal and specialized polymers, researchers have developed sensors that can do both.  

Standalone sensor system uses human movement to monitor health and environment

Person blowing on a sensor

By Ashley WennersHerron

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — For mere dollars, a Penn State-led international collaboration has fabricated a self-powered, standalone sensor system capable of monitoring gas molecules in the environment or in human breath. The system combines nanogenerators with micro-supercapacitors to harvest and story energy generated by human movement.