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NANO — World’s smallest antenna . . .

Instead of the conventional long piece of metal or dipole antenna, electronic devices of tomorrow could incorporate an antenna no bigger than a gnat. This is made possible by a design that allows an electrically charged nano-mechanical oscillator to be tuned to specific electromagnetic waves. “Gone will be the days when we need to match the antenna length to the wavelength,” said Panos Datskos, a co-developer of this proprietary technology. The potentially revolutionary system detects very small electric fields over large frequency ranges while maintaining substantial power efficiency, making it ideal for environmental, homeland security and electric grid applications. Other developers are Nickolay Lavrik, Slo Rajic and Thomas Thundat.

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