Energy Storage

The legendary Holst Research Centre in Eindhoven Netherlands organised a Smart Packaging Workshop on July 3 for invited participants.

A new printed battery that can be produced cost-effectively on a large scale could soon power small integrated displays on electronic bank cards.

There are huge opportunities for companies providing inorganic chemicals to printed and potentially printed electronics. Here, Dr Peter Harrop, Chairman, IDTechEx, summarises some of the findings from the new IDTechEx report "Inorganic and Composite Printed Electronics 2009-2019."

Designed to replace a current generation of Lithium Ion battery-based cache back-up devices, the Adaptec RAID Series 5Z reduces operating costs and environmental impact.

EnerPak from TPL Inc is a sophisticated power management and energy storage system for energy harvesting-powered wireless sensors that have moderate power needs due to high data rate, the need to support a mesh network topology, or complex data measurement requirements.

This year has already seen a huge increase in the choice of electronic components that can be printed or are compatible with printing in that they are thin, flexible and can support further printed circuitry on top.

Speakers already confirmed include The US Navy SPAWAR, GE, Savi Technology, University of Michigan, Fisk University, Structural Graphics, MicroStrain, Axcess Technologies, The Facility, NREL and many others.

Companies will share their latest results with the broader semiconductor and display manufacturing supply chain at SEMICON West, July 14-16 in San Francisco.

From Spring 2009, Italian car designer Pininfarina and French battery/supercapacitor manufacturer Bolloré have begun accepting orders online for its four-passenger, five door hatchback Bluecar.

In the last year, the burgeoning printed and thin film electronics industry has greatly enhanced its repertoire and changed its priorities, encompassing such things as rapid commercialisation of disposable and invisible electronics.

Scientists have created a new battery fuelled by air - with the potential for 10 times the storage capacity of conventional cells. This step-change in capacity could pave the way for a new generation of electric cars, mobile phones and laptops.

IDTechEx is in San Jose CA this week, and has attended a conference covering aspects of energy harvesting. Here are some of the highlights of company developments.

Some of the new electric cars generate at least some of their electric power from solar cells on the vehicle - In future, they may generate electricity in part from shock absorbers, transparent solar cells over windows and thermoelectrically from the engine and exhaust in hybrid.

Remotely rechargeable, the batteries gather energy from the environment, from sources such as vibrations and existing radio waves.

STMicroelectronics (STM), one of the world's leading semiconductor manufacturers, has announced a commercial agreement with Front-Edge Technology (FET), the California-based developer of next-generation rechargeable batteries, enabling ST to bring FET's NanoEnergy® ultra-thin lithium battery technology to a wide range of new markets and applications.

Some of the new electric cars generate at least some of their electric power from solar cells on the vehicle - In future, they may generate electricity in part from shock absorbers, transparent solar cells over windows and thermoelectrically from the engine and exhaust in hybrid.

Cymbet Corporation was recently awarded EE Times' 2009 Annual Creativity in Electronics (ACE) Award for the "Best Enabler for Green Engineering".