Kyocera Corp. recently announced that a solar project using the company’s solar modules has been awarded the 2012 Swiss Solar Prize: The wheelchairs of 10 inhabitants at the Quimby Huus, an institution for the physically disabled in St. Gallen, Switzerland, are driven exclusively using solar power.

Magnetron sputtering was initially developed using metal or alloy targets with materials having high electrical conductivity (e.g., Al, Ag, Au, Cu, Ti, Mo, etc.).

For centuries, ceramic materials were used exclusively for tableware and building materials. In the mid-19th century, technical development in refractories and abrasives enabled the development of modern metallurgy and glass industries and became the first industrial application for ceramics.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently announced an award to the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) and its partners to establish a new NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC) focused on nanoscale multiferroic devices that offer unprecedented capabilities to electromagnetic components.