Industry News

January 2018
NTU Scientists Create Customizable, Fabric-Like Power Source for Wearable Electronics
Scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have created a customizable, fabric-like power source that can be cut, folded or stretched without losing its function. Led by Professor Chen Xiaodong, Associate Chair (Faculty) at the School of Materials Science & Engineering, the team
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Date:
01/30/2018
Arrow Electronics and Cadence Launch OrCAD Entrepreneur on Arrow.com to Accelerate Printed Circuit Board Design Process
Arrow Electronics and Cadence Design Systems have expanded their ongoing collaboration, launching the Cadence OrCAD Entrepreneur package for OrCAD Capture Cloud on the Arrow.com design center. The new software tool suite cuts in half the time that it takes a designer to move from design to prototype, when compared
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Date:
01/30/2018
ON Semiconductor announces strategic partnership with Audi on Progressive SemiConductor Program (PSCP)
ON Semiconductor announced a strategic relationship with Audi following its selection to become part of the German car maker’s Progressive SemiConductor Program (PSCP). The goal of the interdisciplinary semiconductor strategy is to foster innovation along with quality and make the latest technologies available
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Date:
01/30/2018
Project Fab4Lib Launched with 19 Partners
On 01/18/2018, 36 specialists from a total of 19 research institutions and industrial companies met at Manz AG in Reutlingen under the project management of TerraE Holding GmbH to officially launch the Fab4Lib research project to develop large-scale mass production for lithium-ion cells. The goal of the project
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Date:
01/30/2018
"In my study, I wanted to show that calculating the greenhouse gas emissions of biofuels tells just half of the story. What we really need to do is quantify the emissions of each product coming out of biorefineries," says Edgard Gnansounou, professor at EPFL and head of the school's Bioenergy and Energy Planning Rese
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Date:
01/29/2018
Nuclear fusion for the controlled and regular generation of electric power by converting hydrogen into helium and reproducing on a small scale what happens in our Sun (as well as other stars) is one of the foremost technological promises for the decades ahead. So far, only limited results have been achieved
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Date:
01/29/2018
Solar Heat Could Make Power + Water for Namibia: Study

The proposed solar thermal energy would be dispatchable day or night (red and orange thermal storage tanks) and include thermal desalination.

A research study from Stellenbosch University finds that a 100 MW concentrated solar power (CSP) plant adapted to also "co-generate" water via multi-effect distillation (MED) would potentially be financially viable for Namibia given a world class solar resource at Arandis, where state utility NamPower pl
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Date:
01/29/2018
Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. held the 2018 Qualcomm China Tech Day in Beijing. At the event, Qualcomm Technologies and leading Chinese manufacturers expressed interest in working together in an initiative to support China’s smartphone industry for the global opportunities that will be made available by 5G and intr
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Date:
01/26/2018
UNIST Researchers Develop Highly Stretchable Aqueous Batteries

A UNIST research team has succeeded in developing world's first stretchable aqueous Li-ion batteries. From left are Jeonghwan Park, Professor Soojin Park, Professor Kwanyong Seo, Dong Hyup Kim, Professor So Youn Kim, and Woo-Jin Song.

The current development of stretchable battery materials that mimic the functions of nature has emerged as a highly interesting research area, necessary for the next wave of wearable electronics. A recent study, affiliated with UNIST has presented a bioinspired Jabuticaba-like hybrid carbon/polymer (HCP) comp
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Date:
01/26/2018
Integration of AI and Robotics With Materials Sciences Will Lead to new Clean Energy Technology
Materials are the foundation of essentially all clean energy technologies including advanced batteries, solar cells, low-energy semiconductors, catalysts for capturing and storing CO2, and more. But discovering new materials is currently a time consuming and expensive process: to determine whether they will be
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Date:
01/26/2018
Energy Supply Channels
Researchers at the University of Freiburg have succeeded in describing how so-called beta-barrel proteins are inserted into the membrane of mitochondria. The proteins enable the cells' powerhouses to import and export molecules. With this discovery, the team led by Prof. Dr. Nils Wiedemann and Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Pfa
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Date:
01/26/2018
Recycling And Reusing Worn Cathodes to Make New Lithium Ion Batteries

(L-R): First author Yang Shi and Professor Zheng Chen of UC San Diego developed a method to recycle and regenerate cathodes of spent lithium ion batteries.

Nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego have developed an energy-efficient recycling process that restores used cathodes from spent lithium ion batteries and makes them work just as good as new. The process involves harvesting the degraded cathode particles from a used battery and then boiling an
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Date:
01/25/2018
Scientists Reveal the Fundamental Limitation in the key Material for Solid-State Lighting

This is a scanning transmission electron microscopy image of the atomic ordering in (In, Ga)N monolayer: single atomic column, containing only indium (In) atoms (shown by higher intensity on the image), followed by two, containing only gallium (Ga) atoms.

For the first time an international research group has revealed the core mechanism that limits the indium (In) content in indium gallium nitride ((In, Ga)N) thin films - the key material for blue light emitting diodes (LED). Increasing the In content in InGaN quantum wells is the common approach to shift the em
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Date:
01/24/2018
New Discovery Could Improve Organic Solar Cell Performance
While there is a growing market for organic solar cells ¬¬- they contain materials that are cheaper, more abundant, and more environmentally friendly than those used in typical solar panels - they also tend to be less efficient in converting sunlight to electricity than conventional solar cells. Now, scientist
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Date:
01/24/2018
Adding Graphene Girders to Silicon Electrodes Could Double the Life of Lithium Batteries

This is a cross section of the Silicon and FLG together in an anode.

New research led by WMG, at the University of Warwick has found an effective approach to replacing graphite in the anodes of lithium-ion batteries using silicon, by reinforcing the anode's structure with graphene girders. This could more than double the life of rechargeable lithium-ion based batteries and also inc
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Date:
01/23/2018
Breakthrough 1,000 Degree C Solar to get First Commercial Trial

This is a particle receiver diagram.

A new solar technology is twice as efficient, cutting the cost of solar thermal energy, by raising operating temperatures to 1,000°C, almost twice the 565°C molten salt temperature in current concentrated solar power (CSP) tower plants. For most innovative research in clean energy, the dreaded "Valley of Death&
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Date:
01/22/2018
Making Fuel Cells for a Fraction of the Cost

UC Riverside researchers have developed an inexpensive, efficient catalyst material for polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells which are among the most promising fuel cell types to power cars and electronics.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Fuel cells have the potential to be a clean and efficient way to run cars, computers, and power stations, but the cost of producing them is limiting their use. That's because a key component of the most common fuel cells is a catalyst made from the precious metal platinum. In a paper publ
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Date:
01/22/2018
Magnetic Liquids Improve Energy Efficiency of Buildings

A prototype of the innovative smart windows for controlled shading and solar thermal energy harvesting is presented by Ph.D. student Benjamin Heiz from the research group of Lothar Wondraczek.

(Jena, Germany) Climate protection and the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions have been on top of global development agendas. Accordingly, research and development projects have been conducted on national and international levels, which aim for the improvement of the CO2-footprint in diverse processes. Apart from pa
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Date:
01/17/2018
Light-Splitting Greenhouse Film Could Improve Photosynthetic Efficiency

Assistant Professor Ronggui Yang (left) and Assistant Professor Xiaobo Yin in a greenhouse on the University of Colorado Boulder campus.

University of Colorado Boulder engineers have received a $2.45 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to develop a scalable, cost-effective greenhouse material that splits sunlight into photosynthetically efficient light and repurposes inefficient infrared light to aid in water purification. The four-year
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Date:
01/17/2018
X-rays Reveal 'Handedness' in Swirling Electric Vortices
Scientists used spiraling X-rays at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) to observe, for the first time, a property that gives handedness to swirling electric patterns - dubbed polar vortices - in a synthetically layered material. This property, also known as chirali
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Date:
01/16/2018
Shale Gas is One of The Least Sustainable Ways to Produce Electricity, Research Finds
Shale gas is one of least sustainable options for producing electricity, according to new research from The University of Manchester. Taking into account a range of sustainability aspects and assuming that they are all equally important, the research found that shale gas overall ranks seventh out of nine e
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Date:
01/16/2018
Slow 'Hot Electrons' Could Improve Solar Cell Efficiency

This is a laser light exciting the hybrid perovskite material

Photons with energy higher than the 'band gap' of the semiconductor absorbing them give rise to what are known as hot electrons. The extra energy in respect to the band gap is lost very fast, as it is converted into heat so it does not contribute to the voltage. University of Groningen Professor of Photophysics and
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Date:
01/16/2018
Anglia named Panasonic’s Regional Distributor of the year
Anglia Components today announced that it has been named Regional Distributor of the year 2017 by Panasonic. The award recognises Anglia’s strong sales performance and investment in Panasonic’s product range.   “Panasonic strongly supports its sales strategy through distribution,” explains Ian Needham, Distribu
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Date:
01/16/2018
Russian Scientists Found Excitons in Nickel Oxide for the First Time

This is a photo made using an electron microscope.

Russian scientists from Ural Federal University (UrFU) together with their colleagues from Institute of Metal Physics of the Ural Department of Russian Academy of Sciences studied fundamental characteristics of nickel oxide nanocrystals and found excitons on the light absorption edge for the first time. An exciton is
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Date:
01/12/2018
CES 2018 Statement on Limited Power Outage
Las Vegas, NV, January 10, 2018 - The following statement is attributed to the Las Vegas Visitor and Convention Authority, NV Energy and Consumer Technology Association (CTA), regarding the limited power outage in the Las Vegas Convention Center: "Today at approximately 11:15 AM, the Central Hall and
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Date:
01/11/2018
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. /PRNewswire/ -- Airports searching for ways to lower their multimillion dollar electric bills immediately recognized the opportunity to save up to 25% on their power bills upon learning about Stored Air Power's patent filing last week that sets a new paradigm for Compressed Air Energy Stora
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Date:
01/11/2018
Full Value Chain -- Tailored Diode Lasers and UV LEDs

This is a compact laser source generating short optical pulses with widths between 200 picoseconds and 20 nanoseconds, suited e.g. for LiDAR applications.

The Ferdinand-Braun-Institut (FBH) presents novel developments and advancements of its diode lasers and UV light-emitting diodes (LEDs) at Photonics West 2018. The event is hosted in San Francisco (USA) from 30 January - 1 February 2018. FBH is also extensively represented at the accompanying conferences (27 Ja
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Date:
01/11/2018
NTU and Volvo to Jointly Develop Autonomous Electric Buses in Singapore

NTU and Volvo will begin testing autonomous electric passenger buses at the CETRAN test centre from 2019 and the 40-seater buses will be equipped with GPS and integrated navigation systems that will enable it to drive, park and even charge itself.

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) and Volvo Buses announced today that they will begin testing autonomous electric passenger buses in Singapore in 2019. For Volvo, this will be its first autonomous application in public transportation anywhere in the world and it has chosen NTU Singa
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Date:
01/11/2018
JUNO BEACH, Fla./PRNewswire/ -- Florida Power & Light Company announced the latest major milestones in its ongoing strategy of advancing clean energy affordably for customers: the retirement of one of Florida's largest coal-fired power plants and the opening of four new solar power plants comprised of more than
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Date:
01/09/2018
MENDHAM, N.J.— At APEC 2018, the Power Sources Manufacturers Association's (PSMA) Transportation Power Electronics Technical Committee will sponsor an APEC Industry Session titled: “Vehicle Batteries – It’s More Than Just Stacking Cells Together and an EV1 Retrospective.” The session (IS12) will fe
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Date:
01/09/2018
Mouser Now Stocking Linear Technology Portfolio from Analog Devices
Mouser Electronics, Inc. announces an expanded global distribution agreement with Analog Devices, Inc. to stock the full line of Linear Technology products, including all power products from the new Power by Linear division. “We are very excited about what this expanded global partnership brings to our half a
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Date:
01/09/2018
Study Boosts Hope for Cheaper Fuel Cells

Simulations by Rice University scientists show how carbon nanomaterials may be optimized to replace expensive platinum in cathodes for electricity-generating fuel cells for transportation and other applications.

Nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes or modified graphene nanoribbons may be suitable replacements for platinum for fast oxygen reduction, the key reaction in fuel cells that transform chemical energy into electricity, according to Rice University researchers. The findings are from computer simulations by Rice s
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Date:
01/05/2018
Science for a Resilient EU Power Grid
Electricity is the backbone of European society. When a natural disaster hits the power grid, recovery can happen in a matter of hours or it could take months to fully restore electricity supply. As well as hampering emergency response efforts, power cuts can trigger accidents and bring economic activity to a
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Date:
01/05/2018
Plainview, NY - SMC Diode Solutions announced a global distribution agreement with Avnet USI. Under the terms of the agreement, Avnet ASI will market, sell, and support SMC Diode’s comprehensive semiconductor portfolio worldwide. SMC Diode Solutions is a silicon and silicon carbide (SiC) innovator with a wholly-owned
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Date:
01/04/2018
MENDHAM, NJ—  The Power Sources Manufacturers Association (PSMA) and the IEEE Power Electronics Society (IEEE PELS) are jointly sponsoring the third high-frequency magnetics workshop, “Power Magnetics @ High Frequency – Eliminating the Smoke and Mirrors,”on Saturday, March 3, 2018. The workshop will be conducted on the day before and in the same ven
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Date:
01/04/2018
Laser Evaporation Technology to Create New Solar Materials

This is a closer look at the target of frozen solution that contains the building blocks for the solar cell material.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Materials scientists at Duke University have developed a method to create hybrid thin-film materials that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to make. The technique could be the gateway to new generations of solar cells, light-emitting diodes and photodetectors. The research team desc
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Date:
01/03/2018
A Fossil Fuel Technology That Doesn't Pollute

L.S. Fan, Distinguished University Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at The Ohio State University, holds samples of materials developed in his laboratory that enable clean energy technologies.

COLUMBUS, Ohio--Engineers at The Ohio State University are developing technologies that have the potential to economically convert fossil fuels and biomass into useful products including electricity without emitting carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. In the first of two papers published in the journal Energy &a
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Date:
01/03/2018
Exploring Electrolysis for Energy Storage

A Kyushu University research team realized continuous electrochemical synthesis of an alcoholic compound from a carboxylic acid using a polymer electrolyte alcohol electrosynthesis cell, which enables direct power charge into alcoholic compound.

Fukuoka - Interest in renewable energy continues to burgeon. Many renewables, though, can be frustratingly intermittent - when the sun stops shining, or the wind stops blowing, the power flickers. The fluctuating supply can be partly smoothed-out by energy storage during peak production times. However, storing el
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Date:
01/02/2018
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