A Look At Design And Camera Facilities On The Samsung Galaxy S2 And The Galaxy S Advance

The Samsung Galaxy range of mobile smartphones seems to be growing all of the time and the latest addition to the family is the new Galaxy S Advance. Previously we took a look at screen technology and processing power on this device and looked at how it compared with the bestselling Samsung Galaxy S2. This time we look at camera features on both of these models and also see how the models compare in terms of design.

The new Samsung Galaxy S Advance features an improved camera facility from the Galaxy S model that it is based on. Still photography quality is impressive and images can be captured at a resolution of 5 million pixels. As you would expect a wealth of additional features are available to help you capture the highest quality images possible. Auto focus will help ensure that there is minimal blur on any photos and the useful Smile Detection function will take the photograph the moment it detects people smiling. Thanks to the phone incorporating GPS all photographs can also have location details stored about where the snaps were taken.

Despite the Galaxy S Advance offering a high quality camera feature the Samsung Galaxy S2 offers a little more in terms of quality in this area. An 8 mega pixel camera captures an incredible quality of image although many of the additional features are the same as can be found on the Advance model. Both handsets offer a secondary front facing camera which is ideal for video calls and both are also capable of capturing still images. The Galaxy S2 can record 2 mega pixel resolution from this camera while the Galaxy S Advance offers just 1.3 mega pixels.

One of the key areas on modern smartphones is design. A great looking device will always grab the attention of the consumer while a more dated design will often be overlooked. The Galaxy range of devices are famous for their stylish looks and both of these handsets do not disappoint in this area. The Galaxy S Advance looks very similar to the original Galaxy S device. The handset measures 123.2 x 63 x 9.7mm which makes the phone one of the most compact currently available.

At just 120 grammes in weight the model is also surprisingly lightweight considering it includes a 4 inch display. Although the Samsung Galaxy S2 includes a larger 4.3 inch screen the phone manages to weigh less than the Advance model at just 116 grammes. The model measures just 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.5mm and is constructed from some very durable plastic. This black plastic gives the phone a very modern look which combines well with the curved corners of the phone to leave us with a device that may not win any awards for innovation but still looks superb.

The Samsung Galaxy S Advance is a superb addition to the Galaxy range and will strike a chord with consumers looking for great value for money. The Samsung Galaxy S2 is still the premium model in the range and offers superior camera features and excellent design despite its advancing age.

The Samsung Galaxy S2 is available now and the Samsung Galaxy S3 is coming soon.

View the original article here

Sharpening the lines: Advance could lead to smaller features in the quest for more compact, faster microchips

ScienceDaily (Dec. 14, 2011) — The microchip revolution has seen a steady shrinking of features on silicon chips, packing in more transistors and wires to boost chips' speed and data capacity. But in recent years, the technologies behind these chips have begun to bump up against fundamental limits, such as the wavelengths of light used for critical steps in chip manufacturing.

Now, a new technique developed by researchers at MIT and the University of Utah offers a way to break through one of these limits, possibly enabling further leaps in the computational power packed into a tiny sliver of silicon. A paper describing the process was published in the journal Physical Review Letters in November.

Postdoc Trisha Andrew PhD '10 of MIT's Research Laboratory of Electronics, a co-author of this paper as well as a 2009 paper that described a way of creating finer lines on chips, says this work builds on that earlier method. But unlike the earlier technique, called absorbance modulation, this one allows the production of complex shapes rather than just lines, and can be carried out using less expensive light sources and conventional chip-manufacturing equipment. "The whole optical setup is on a par with what's out there" in chip-making plants, she says. "We've demonstrated a way to make everything cheaper."

As in the earlier work, this new system relies on a combination of approaches: namely, interference patterns between two light sources and a photochromic material that changes color when illuminated by a beam of light. But, Andrew says, a new step is the addition of a material called a photoresist, used to produce a pattern on a chip via a chemical change following exposure to light. The pattern transferred to the chip can then be etched away with a chemical called a developer, leaving a mask that can in turn control where light passes through that layer.

While traditional photolithography is limited to producing chip features larger than the wavelength of the light used, the method devised by Andrew and her colleagues has now been shown to produce features one-eighth that size. Others have achieved similar sizes before, Andrew says, but only with equipment whose complexity is incompatible with quick, inexpensive manufacturing processes.

The new system uses "a materials approach, combined with sophisticated optics, to get large-scale patterning," she says. And the technique should make it possible to reduce the size of the lines even further, she says.

The key to beating the limits usually imposed by the wavelength of light and the size of the optical system is an effect called stimulated emission depletion imaging, or STED, which uses fluorescent materials that emit light when illuminated by a laser beam. If the power of the laser falls below a certain level, the fluorescence stops, leaving a dark patch. It turns out that by carefully controlling the laser's power, it's possible to leave a dark patch much smaller than the wavelength of the laser light itself. By using the dark areas as a mask, and sweeping the beam across the chip surface to create a pattern, these smaller sizes can be "locked in" to the surface.

That process has previously been used to improve the resolution of optical microscopes, but researchers had thought it inapplicable to photolithographic chip making. The innovation by this MIT and Utah team was to combine STED with the earlier absorbance-modulation technique, replacing the fluorescent materials with a special polymer whose molecules change shape in response to specific wavelengths of light.

In addition to enabling the manufacture of chips with finer features, the technique could also be used in other advanced technologies, such as the production of photonic devices, which use patterns to control the flow of light rather than the flow of electricity. "It can be used for any process that uses optical lithography," Andrew says.

Professor Stefan Hell, head of the Department of NanoBiophotonics at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in G?ttingen, Germany, calls this work "strikingly simple and elegant" and "a most impressive demonstration of the idea of using photochromic molecules to create features that are both finer and closer together than half the wavelength of the light."

"The work shows a concrete pathway to creating tiny and dense features at the nanoscale." he adds. "Because of its future potential it needs to be actively pursued. ... These methods have the potential of shifting the paradigm of what we think that focused light can do for making nanosized features and hence mastering the nanoworld."

In addition to Andrew, the paper's authors include Rajesh Menon, formerly a research engineer at MIT and now an assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Utah, and Utah postdoc Nicole Brimhall and graduate student Rajakumar Varma Manthena. The work was supported in part by grants from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Science Foundation.

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The original article was written by David L. Chandler, MIT News Office.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Nicole Brimhall, Trisha Andrew, Rajakumar Manthena, Rajesh Menon. Breaking the Far-Field Diffraction Limit in Optical Nanopatterning via Repeated Photochemical and Electrochemical Transitions in Photochromic Molecules. Physical Review Letters, 2011; 107 (20) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.205501

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

A light wave of innovation to advance solar energy: Researchers adapt classic antennas to harness more power from the sun

ScienceDaily (Nov. 10, 2011) — Some solar devices, like calculators, only need a small panel of solar cells to function. But supplying enough power to meet all our daily needs would require enormous solar panels. And solar-powered energy collected by panels made of silicon, a semiconductor material, is limited -- contemporary panel technology can only convert approximately seven percent of optical solar waves into electric current.

Profs. Koby Scheuer, Yael Hanin and Amir Boag of Tel Aviv University's Department of Physical Electronics and its innovative new Renewable Energy Center are now developing a solar panel composed of nano-antennas instead of semiconductors. By adapting classic metallic antennas to absorb light waves at optical frequencies, a much higher conversion rate from light into useable energy could be achieved. Such efficiency, combined with a lower material cost, would mean a cost-effective way to harvest and utilize "green" energy.

The technology was recently presented at Photonics West in San Francisco and published in the conference proceedings.

Receiving and transmitting green energy

Both radio and optical waves are electromagnetic energy, Prof. Scheuer explains. When these waves are harvested, electrons are generated that can be converted into electric current. Traditionally, detectors based on semiconducting materials like silicon are used to interface with light, while radio waves are captured by antenna.

For optimal absorption, the antenna dimensions must correspond to the light's very short wavelength -- a challenge in optical frequencies that plagued engineers in the past, but now we are able to fabricate antennas less than a micron in length. To test the efficacy of their antennas, Prof. Scheuer and his colleagues measured their ability to absorb and remit energy. "In order to function, an antenna must form a circuit, receiving and transmitting," says Prof. Scheuer, who points to the example of a cell phone, whose small, hidden antenna both receives and transmits radio waves in order to complete a call or send a message.

By illuminating the antennas, the researchers were able to measure the antennas' ability to re-emit radiation efficiently, and determine how much power is lost in the circuit -- a simple matter of measuring the wattage going in and coming back out. Initial tests indicate that 95 percent of the wattage going into the antenna comes out, meaning that only five percent is wasted.

According to Prof. Scheuer, these "old school" antennas also have greater potential for solar energy because they can collect wavelengths across a much broader spectrum of light. The solar spectrum is very broad, he explains, with UV or infrared rays ranging from ten microns to less than two hundred nanometers. No semiconductor can handle this broad a spectrum, and they absorb only a fraction of the available energy. A group of antennas, however, can be manufactured in different lengths with the same materials and process, exploiting the entire available spectrum of light.

When finished, the team's new solar panels will be large sheets of plastic which, with the use of a nano-imprinting lithography machine, will be imprinted with varying lengths and shapes of metallic antennas.

Improving solar power's bottom line

The researchers have already constructed a model of a possible solar panel. The next step, says Prof. Scheuer, is to focus on the conversion process -- how electromagnetic energy becomes electric current, and how the process can be improved.

The goal is not only to improve the efficiency of solar panels, but also to make the technology a viable option in terms of cost. Silicon is a relatively inexpensive semiconductor, but in order to obtain sufficient power from antennas, you need a very large panel -- which becomes expensive. Green energy sources need to be evaluated not only by what they can contribute environmentally, but also the return on every dollar invested, Prof. Scheuer notes. "Our antenna is based on metal -- aluminium and gold -- in very small quantities. It has the potential to be more efficient and less expensive."

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Friends of Tel Aviv University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here