Technology and the built world

Ion beam deposition

Ion beam deposition (IBD) is a vacuum thin-film technique in which an accelerated ion beam carries material to a substrate, producing diamondlike carbon, optical, and semiconductor films.

Ion beam etching

Ion beam etching, also called ion milling, is a dry microfabrication process that removes material by sputtering it with a collimated beam of energetic ions, usually argon.

Ion beam machining is a non-conventional machining process that removes material from a workpiece by sputtering with accelerated ions, achieving nanometer precision in applications like semiconductor mask repair.

Ion beam mixing

Ion beam mixing is the intermingling of atoms in layered solids under energetic ion irradiation, used to form metal silicide contacts on silicon at low temperatures.

Ion concentration polarization

Ion concentration polarization (ICP) is an electrokinetic phenomenon in which current through an ion-selective membrane creates ion depletion and enrichment zones, used for microfluidic desalination and water purification.

Ion endoluminal system

The Ion endoluminal system is a robotic-assisted bronchoscopy platform made by Intuitive Surgical and cleared by the FDA in 2019 to biopsy small peripheral lung nodules using fiber-optic shape-sensing navigation.

ION Geophysical

ION Geophysical was an American seismic technology company for oil and gas exploration, founded in 1968 as Input/Output and reorganized after filing for bankruptcy in 2022.

ION Group

ION Group, also known as Ion Investment Group, is a private financial software and data company founded by Andrea Pignataro in 1998, serving banks, brokerages, and hedge funds worldwide.

Ion implantation

Ion implantation is a semiconductor fabrication process in which ionized dopant atoms are accelerated into a wafer to change its electronic properties, the dominant doping method in chip manufacturing.

Ion migration (perovskite solar cells)

Ion migration in perovskite solar cells is the movement of ions such as iodide through the soft perovskite lattice, causing current–voltage hysteresis and long-term degradation.

Ion Mincu

Ion Mincu (1852–1912) was a Romanian architect, engineer, professor, and politician credited as founder of the Neo-Romanian style; his works include Casa Lahovary and the Central Girls' School in Bucharest.

Ion plating

Ion plating is a physical vapor deposition method in which the substrate and growing film are bombarded with energetic ions, giving dense, adherent coatings at low temperatures.

Sep 21, 2026

Ion Stoica

Ion Stoica is a Romanian-born computer scientist and professor at UC Berkeley who co-founded Databricks, Anyscale, and Conviva and is known for the Chord peer-to-peer lookup protocol.

Ion thruster

An ion thruster is a spacecraft engine that ionizes propellant, typically xenon, and accelerates the ions to produce gentle, efficient thrust. First flown in 1964, it now propels deep-space missions and satellites.

Ion transport membrane

An ion transport membrane, also called an oxygen transport membrane, is a dense ceramic membrane separating near-pure oxygen from air at about 800 to 900 °C without cryogenic cooling.

Ion-beam lithography

Ion-beam lithography (IBL) is a nanofabrication technique that patterns nanoscale structures by directing focused or projected beams of energetic ions onto a resist or substrate, achieving sub-10 nm resolution.

Ion-beam sputter deposition

Ion-beam sputter deposition (IBSD) is a physical vapor deposition technique in which a beam of ions bombards a target, ejecting atoms that condense on a substrate as a thin film.

Ion-exchange membrane

An ion-exchange membrane is a dense, charged polymeric membrane that selectively passes oppositely charged ions by Donnan exclusion, used in electrodialysis, fuel cells, redox flow batteries, and water electrolysis.

Ioncell-F

Ioncell-F is a Lyocell-type fiber spinning process developed at Aalto University and the University of Helsinki that turns wood pulp and textile waste into strong cellulosic fibers.

ioneer

Ioneer is a mining developer whose flagship Rhyolite Ridge project in Nevada is designed to co-produce lithium carbonate and boric acid from a single deposit.

Ionic (mobile app framework)

Ionic, also known as Ionic Framework, is an open source toolkit for building iOS, Android, and Progressive Web Apps from one codebase with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, announced in 2013 and acquired by OutSystems in 2022.

Ionic capacitance in perovskite solar cells

Ionic capacitance in perovskite solar cells is a very large, slow capacitance arising from mobile ions, prominent since 2015 and a key cause of current–voltage hysteresis in measurements.

Ionic liquid electrolytes for lithium and sodium cells

Ionic liquid electrolytes are battery electrolytes in which the solvent is a room-temperature ionic liquid, offering nonflammability and high stability but suffering high viscosity and low conductivity.

Ionic liquid extraction of rare-earth elements

Ionic liquid extraction of rare-earth elements is a liquid–liquid separation method where salts molten at or near room temperature replace volatile organic solvents, improving rare-earth recovery and selectivity despite high costs.

Ionic liquid pretreatment

Ionic liquid pretreatment uses ionic liquids, salts that melt below 100 °C, to dissolve lignocellulosic biomass so cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin can be converted to fuels like ethanol.

Ionic order

The Ionic order, also called the Ionian order, is one of the three principal classical Greek architectural orders, defined by columns crowned with scroll-like volutes, originating in Asia Minor in the mid-6th century BC.

Ionic polymer-metal composite

An ionic polymer-metal composite (IPMC) is a soft smart material that bends under low voltage and, conversely, generates a voltage when bent, used as an artificial-muscle actuator.

Ionic skin

Ionic skin is an artificial-skin sensor using mobile ions, rather than electrons, to sense pressure, strain, temperature, and humidity; it is built from ionic conductors like hydrogels.

Ionic-liquid gating

Ionic-liquid gating is a technique that tunes electronic and magnetic properties using an ionic liquid forming an electric double layer, inducing far larger carrier densities than solid-gate transistors.