Industry News

    March 2022
    Record Order From Maersk for Volvo Electric Trucks
    Volvo Trucks in North America has won an order for 110 Volvo VNR Electric trucks from the global logistics company Maersk. The deal adds to a previous order of 16 vehicles of the same model and marks the single largest commercial order to date for Volvo’s electric trucks. The order was placed by Perfo
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    Date:
    03/29/2022
    Speed Limit of Computers Detected

    An international research group has found out how fast a computer can become maximum.

    The maximum speed of signal transmission in microchips is about one petaherz (one million gigahertz), which is about 100,000 times faster than current transistors. Physicists from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics and Vienna and Graz Un
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    Date:
    03/28/2022
    Re-Jigged Cathode Recipe Gives new Hope to Solid-State Batteries for Electric Vehicles

    Researchers designed solid-state composite electrodes based on the liquid-phase sintering technique.

    Solid-state batteries for electric vehicles, offering greater energy density and range than contemporary lithium-ion batteries, remain out of reach, not least due to challenges coming from the composition of the battery’s cathode. A new cathode composition and accompanying manufacturing technique looks set to
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    Date:
    03/28/2022
    Probing the Inner Workings of High-Fidelity Quantum Processors

    A silicon quantum processor in which an electron spin qubit (blue) enables communication between two phosphorus nuclear spin qubits (red). Researchers used gate set tomography to show that the processor’s logic gates surpass 99 percent fidelity.

    Tiny quantum computing processors built from silicon have finally surpassed 99 percent fidelity in certain logic operations ("gates”). Quantum computers store information in the quantum state of a physical system (in this case, two silicon qubits) then manipulate the quantum state to perform a calculation in
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    Date:
    03/28/2022
    Can Bessel Beams be Realized in the Ultrabroad Terahertz Frequency Range?

    Experimental setup and Bessel-terahertz wave detection results

    Terahertz (THz) radiation from laser plasmas features with ultrabroad bandwidth, which is attractive for many applications. Significant efforts have been made to enhance its conversion efficiency, tune its frequency spectrum, and even manipulate its polarization. However, little attention has been paid to beam st
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    Date:
    03/28/2022

    The newly developed qubits are based on so-called holes (red) whose spin (arrow) in one or the other direction stores the information. They are arranged in an architecture based on silicon transistors.

    Quantum bits (qubits) are the smallest units of information in a quantum computer. Currently, one of the biggest challenges in developing this kind of powerful computer is scalability. A research group at the University of Basel, working with the IBM Research Laboratory in Rüschlikon, has made a breakthrough in
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    Date:
    03/28/2022
    Nexperia officially launches new Dallas design centre
    Nexperia officially launched its new design center in Dallas, Texas. Having recently celebrated its 5th anniversary as an independent company, this development marks another major step towards Nexperia’s stated goal of becoming a world leader in essential semiconductors by 2030.   The Dallas design center
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    Date:
    03/28/2022
    Navitas Announces World’s First 20-Year Warranty for GaN ICs
    Navitas Semiconductor has announced a breakthrough 20-year limited warranty for its GaNFast technology – 10x longer than typical silicon, SiC or discrete GaN power semiconductors – and a critical accelerator for GaN’s adoption in data center, solar and EV markets.   GaN is a next-generation semiconductor te
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    Date:
    03/28/2022
    Nexperia Officially Launches new Dallas Design Center

    Irene Deng, general manager business group, Power and Signal Conversion at Nexperia

    Nexperia announced the official launch of its new design center in Dallas, Texas. Having recently celebrated its 5th anniversary as an independent company, this development marks another major step towards Nexperia’s stated goal of becoming a world leader in essential semiconductors by 2030. The Dallas de
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    Date:
    03/22/2022
    Could we Make Cars out of Petroleum Residue?

    Professor Jeffrey Grossman from MIT

    As the world struggles to improve the efficiency of cars and other vehicles in order to curb greenhouse gas emissions and improve the range of electric vehicles, the search is on for ever-lighter materials that are strong enough to be used in the bodies of cars. Lightweight materials made from carbon fiber, si
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    Date:
    03/21/2022
    Direct Generation of Complex Structured Light

    Intracavity nonlinear frequency conversion of transverse mode locking states generates new structured beams.

    Extension of laser beam structures promises new laser applications. Exploration of how beam structures change during nonlinear frequency conversion processes has drawn increasing interest in recent years. Nonlinear conversion is an excellent route for structured beam generation and represents a growing, hybrid fi
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    Date:
    03/21/2022
    Researchers Develop the World's First Power-Free Frequency Tuner Using Nanomaterials

    Professor Ritesh Agarwal, School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Pennsylvania

    In a paper published in Nature Communications, researchers at the University of Oxford and the University of Pennsylvania have found a power-free and ultra-fast way of frequency tuning using functional nanowires. Think of an orchestra warming up before the performance. The oboe starts to play a pe
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    Date:
    03/21/2022
    New Approach to Bimetallic Catalysis Enhances Rate Through Electrochemical Communication

    Steven McIntosh, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Lehigh

    Catalysts, that make chemical reactions occur faster and more efficiently, are used in the production of most of the chemicals people use daily, such as gasoline, fertilizers and, even, margarine. The problem? Many of these catalytic processes require a tremendous amount of energy, often in the form of heat, an
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    Date:
    03/21/2022
    Bridging Batteries and Supercapacitors

    Yury Gogotsi, PhD, Distinguished University and Bach professor in Drexel’s College of Engineering

    For decades researchers and technologists have regarded batteries and capacitors as two distinct energy storage devices — batteries, known for storing more energy but releasing it slowly; capacitors, for quickly discharging it in smaller spurts. Each new energy storage device has therefore been categorized as
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    Date:
    03/21/2022
    Magnet-Free Chiral Nanowires for Spintronic Devices

    Tellurium chiral structures

    Chiral materials are an ideal playground for exploring the relation between symmetry, relativistic effects, and electronic transport. For instance, chiral organic molecules have been intensively studied to electrically generate spin-polarized currents in the last decade, but their poor electronic conductivity li
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    Date:
    03/21/2022
    Toward a Quantum Computer that Calculates Molecular Energy

    The hybrid algorithm uses a classic and quantum computer to calculate ground state energy. This will help researchers develop new materials for different applications, including sustainability goals.

    Quantum computers are getting bigger, but there are still few practical ways to take advantage of their extra computing power. To get over this hurdle, researchers are designing algorithms to ease the transition from classical to quantum computers. In a new study in Nature, researchers unveil an algorithm th
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    Date:
    03/17/2022
    Catalyst for a Greener Future

    According to researchers in the Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation at the University of Delaware, irrigating a catalyst with hydrogen boosts the active sites and accelerates the chemistry that occurs there.

    Catalysts are workhorses that help reactions occur. Put to work, they transform starting materials, such as fossil fuels, biomass or even waste, into products and fuels with minimal energy.  Researchers in the Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation (CCEI) at the University of Delaware have foun
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    Date:
    03/17/2022
    Envision AESC and Mercedes-Benz Announce new Battery Partnership

    Lei Zhang, Executive Chairman, Envision AESC

    Envision AESC, world-leading battery producer, announces a new partnership with Mercedes-Benz as the luxury automotive brand gets ready to go all electric. Under the new agreement, Envision AESC will supply high-performance battery cell modules to support end to end production of all-electric Mercedes-EQ vehicles
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    Date:
    03/17/2022
    Growing Zinc Battery Initiative Welcomes Startup Zēlos Energy

    Sébastien Bélanger, President, CEO, and Co-Founder of Zēlos Energy

    Silicon Valley startup Zēlos Energy announces plans to join the  Zinc Battery Initiative (ZBI), the voice of the zinc battery industry. ZBI’s rapidly growing membership is comprised of leading zinc battery manufacturers, including Zēlos, which has developed a sustainable, safe zinc-manganese battery de
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    Date:
    03/16/2022
    NYPA Partners with New Hartford to Replace All Town Streetlights with LED Fixtures
    The New York Power Authority (NYPA) and the Town of New Hartford in Oneida County began the installation of energy-efficient LED streetlights throughout the town as part of the state’s Smart Street Lighting NY program. New York has now replaced more than 300,000 of its streetlights with LED fixtures, a
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    Date:
    03/16/2022
    Scientists Devise new Technique to Increase Chip Yield from Semiconductor Wafer

    (L-R) Assistant Professor Kim Munho from the School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering and PhD students Kim Youjin and Liao Yikai from NTU Singapore, are part of the NTU-KIMM research team.

    Scientists from the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) and the Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials (KIMM) have developed a technique to create a highly uniform and scalable semiconductor wafer, paving the way to higher chip yield and more cost-efficient semiconductors. Semiconductor chips com
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    Date:
    03/16/2022
    Kronos Fusion Energy Looks to Take the Next Steps With Direct Fusion Drive

    Brig. Gen. (Ret) Paul E. Owen, CEO of Kronos Fusion Energy Defense Systems

    The promise of fusion energy generation offers not just the potential for limitless energy on earth, but the action of the fusion reaction can also be harnessed as thrust to propel a spaceship faster than ever imagined, revolutionizing space travel to open up deep space exploration and rapid inter-planetary tr
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    Date:
    03/14/2022
    Objects in Driverless Car Sensors may be Closer Than They Appear

    Researchers have shown that a popular method to secure LiDAR sensors against "naive attacks" is still vulnerable at longer distances and only works at short distances. Here, a LiDAR system is fooled into thinking a car is somewhere else until it becomes too late to avoid a sudden and drastic course correction.

    Researchers at Duke University have demonstrated the first attack strategy that can fool industry-standard autonomous vehicle sensors into believing nearby objects are closer (or further) than they appear without being detected. The research suggests that adding optical 3D capabilities or the ability to share
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    Date:
    03/14/2022
    KYOCERA AVX to Acquire ROHM Co., Ltd.'s Tantalum and Polymer Capacitor Business Assets

    Johnny Sarvis, CEO of KYOCERA AVX

    KYOCERA AVX is set to acquire ROHM Semiconductor’s tantalum and polymer capacitor business assets. The two companies recently reached a final agreement, which states that ROHM Semiconductor (ROHM Co., Ltd.) will transfer its tantalum and polymer capacitor business assets — including all of its tantalum an
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    Date:
    03/09/2022
    Laird Thermal Systems Launches Alternative Refrigerant-Based Cooling Systems Initiative

    Dr. Sang Muk Kwark, Staff Scientist at Laird Thermal Systems

    Laird Thermal Systems has launched an initiative to introduce the use of alternative refrigerants in refrigeration-based cooling systems to address global warming and changes in regulatory requirements in the cooling industry. Many years ago, the industry moved away from using flammable, environmentally friendly re
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    Date:
    03/09/2022
    6K and Our Next Energy Collaborate to Create Low-Cost Gemini Cathode Material

    Mujeeb Ijaz, founder and chief executive officer, Our Next Energy

    6K and Our Next Energy Inc. (ONE) announced a partnership as ONE looks to scale up and commercialize its Gemini cell chemistry. The organization signed a letter of intent outlining how the companies will work to
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    Date:
    03/09/2022
    CPS Energy, Quidnet Energy to Build Grid-Scale Pumped Storage Project in Texas

    President & CEO Rudy Garza

    CPS Energy and Quidnet Energy today announced a 15-year commercial agreement for an energy storage project employing Quidnet's Geomechanical Pumped Storage (GPS) technology.  This project will support CPS Energy's 'Flexible Path' Resource Plan to reduce net emissions by 80 percent by 2040. Ener
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    Date:
    03/07/2022
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