May 2010

Dr. Amos Sharoni, an Israeli researcher from Bar-Ilan University is working to make existing batteries last 10 times longer and existing processors work 10 times faster using Spintronics.

Spintronics is the basis of electrical systems. We manipulate electronics to give us power that translates into functions like playing a song. "It's all electrons. They have a charge. There is a battery with a plus-minus. But the electrons have another property - their spin, a small magnetic field, pointing up or down," he explains.

"None of the electronics today use this spin property to do anything," says Sharoni. "It's wasted potential. The reason is because even the smallest element of the device is big, and due to this, you lose all the spin information you have. It gets messy. In regular devices - you just lose it - it's like trying to look through fog."

A short video about the University of Tokyo's Ohtani Laboratory spintronics research, which is focused on spin-polarized current and pure spin current:

Professor Russell Cowburn from the Imperial College in London has been awarded €2.8 million to work on spintronics, with the aim of developing new microchips that can store thousands of times more data than today’s microchips.

Professor Cowburn hopes to develop chips that hold many active components stacked on top of each other, allowing more data to be stored in the same sized chip.

NVE Corporation announced their last financial results for the quarter and fiscal year ended March 31, 2010. Total revenue in the quarter were $8.18 million (compared to $6.9 in the prior-year quarter). Net income was $3.6 million.

For fiscal 2010, total revenue increased 20% to $28.1 million from $23.4 million for the prior fiscal year. The increase was due to a 15% increase in product sales and a 50% increase in contract research and development revenue. Net income for fiscal 2010 increased 23% to $12.0 million.