Power/Performance Bits: March 8 Non-toxic, printable piezoelectric; GaN MEMS resonator; verifying software models. Non-toxic, printable piezoelectric Researchers at RMIT University and University of New South Wales developed a flexible and printable piezoelectric material that could be used in self-powered electronics including wearables and implantables. “Until now, the best performing nano-thin piezoelectrics have been based on lead, a toxic material that is not suitable for biomedical use,” said Dr Nasir Mahmood, a Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellow at RMIT. “Our new material is based on non-toxic zinc oxide, which is also lightweight and compatible with silicon, making it easy to integrate into current electronics. It’s so efficient that all you need is a single 1.1 nanometer layer of our material to produce all the energy required for a fully self-powering nanodevice.”