Researchers have learned how to mass produce tiny mechanical devices that could mean the end of dropped calls and slow download speeds on mobile phones.
The tiny filters are designed to ease congestion over the airwaves.
'There is not enough radio spectrum to account for everybody's handheld portable device,' said Jeffrey Rhoads of Purdue University, who led the research.
The overcrowding results in dropped calls, busy signals, poor call quality and slower downloads.
To solve the problem, the mobile phone industry is trying to build systems that operate with more sharply defined channels so that more of them can fit within the available bandwidth.
'To do that you need more precise filters for cell phones and other radio devices, systems that reject noise and allow signals only near a given frequency to pass,' said Saeed Mohammadi, who is also working on the project.
The Purdue team has created devices called nanoelectromechanical resonators, which contain a tiny beam of silicon that vibrates when voltage is applied.
Researchers have shown that the new devices are produced with a nearly 100 percent yield, meaning nearly all of the devices created on silicon wafers were found to function properly.
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