Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 8

Products of
Tomorrow
u Quantum Rods
Flat screen TVs that
incorporate quantum
dots are now commercially
available, but it
has been more difficult
to create arrays of their elongated cousins, quantum
rods, for commercial devices. Quantum rods can
control both the polarization and color of light, to generate
3D images for virtual reality devices. Using scaffolds
made of folded DNA, MIT engineers have come
up with a new way to precisely assemble arrays of quantum
rods. By depositing quantum rods onto a DNA
scaffold in a highly controlled way, the researchers can
regulate their orientation, which is a key factor in determining
the polarization of light emitted by the array.
This makes it easier to add depth and dimensionality
to a virtual scene. The researchers now hope to
create wafer-scale surfaces with etched patterns, which
could allow them to scale their design to device-scale
arrangements of quantum rods for numerous applications,
beyond only microLEDs or augmented reality/
virtual reality.
Contact: Sarah McDonnell
Phone: 617-253-8923
E-mail: s_mcd@mit.edu
u Crack-Resistant
Glass
Worldwide, glass
manu facturing produces
at least 86 million
tons of carbon
dioxide every year.
A new type of glass
promises to cut this carbon footprint in half. The
invention, called LionGlass engineered by researchers
at Penn State, requires significantly less energy
to produce and is much more damage resistant than
standard soda lime silicate glass. Soda lime silicate
glass, the common glass used in everyday items from
windows to glass tableware, is made by melting three
primary materials: quartz sand, soda ash, and limestone.
But the bulk of the carbon dioxide emissions
come from the energy required to heat furnaces to
the high temperatures needed for melting glass. With
LionGlass, the melting temperatures are lowered by
about 300 to 400 °C, which leads to a roughly 30 percent
reduction in energy consumption compared to
conventional soda lime glass.
Contact: Adrienne Berard
Phone: 303-735-5875
E-mail: akb6884@psu.edu
This column presents technologies that have
applications
in commercial areas, possibly
creating the products of tomorrow. To learn
more about each technology, see the contact
information provided for that innovation.
uLunar Landing Pads
Lunar landing and launch pads represent critical infrastructure for enabling
a sustained presence on the Moon or other planetary bodies. Such a
Moon presence would require repeated lunar landings and takeoffs, preferably
near an outpost or habitat. In the absence of takeoff and landing pads,
such vehicles could project lunar regolith at high velocities, sandblasting the surrounding infrastructure and causing
damage. Conventional paver technology does not have the capability to withstand the loads experienced by landing
pads during vehicle landing or take off. To address this issue, engineers at NASA's Kennedy Space Center and Sidus
Space developed a novel interlocking paver system enabling the robotic construction of high stability vertical takeoff and
landing pads. The jointly developed interlocking paver design consists of a molded solid material with tapered interlocking
features that interface with features of an opposite gender in three orthogonal directions.
Contact: NASA Communications
Phone: 202-358-7432
E-mail: Patent-Licensing@mail.nasa.gov
8
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Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023

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