Supercapacitors and Chiplets

As an editor, writer, musician and home beer brewer, I tend to lean more toward right brain, creative, artistic projects. Despite this inclination, for as long as I can remember I have been fascinated with technology and scientific advances of all kinds. And the past few weeks have produced the kind of technology news I love to learn about. I’m writing about them here not just because I find them interesting, but also because these advances will almost certainly impact the manufacturing and automation space.

The first of these breakthroughs I learned about was the graphene supercapacitor. Discovered by a team of UCLA scientists, this carbon-based supercapacitor is essentially a rechargeable battery capable of being recharged in a fraction of the time required by current batteries. To clarify what I mean by “fraction”, the researchers expect these supercapacitors, when used in devices like smart phones, to be capable of being fully recharged within seconds. As for electric vehicle batteries, they expect them to recharge in the space of a minute—faster than it takes to fill you car up with gas.

而且由于石墨烯超级电容器完全基于碳，因此无需担心处置。实际上，发现超级电容器的UCLA研究小组负责人理查德·凯纳（Richard Kaner）表示，不再能够充电的用户超级电容器可以被分解并用来喂养花园。

See a video about this technology at the bottom of this article.

News of this technology advance has been out for a little more than a year now, but it re-entered the news cycle recently with news from the UCLA researchers, and reported in Nature Communications, that the graphene supercapacitor fabrication process has been made more efficient. This means that the concept is already proving to be scalable beyond the initial simple yet time-consuming production process. The initial process involved coating blank DVDs with a liquid graphene substance and then exposing it to the laser light in the DVD dive.

While the electric car battery supercapacitor application may still be years away, the researchers are already in discussion with industry partners to bring the graphene supercapacitor to bear in applications ranging from roll-up displays and TVs toe-paper和可穿戴电子产品。

根据凯纳（Kaner）的说法，超级电容器也可以直接集成到芯片上，以更好地从太阳能，机械和热源来提取能量，从而导致更有效的自动系统。

在其他技术新闻中，施乐的帕洛阿尔托研究中心（PARC）讲述了一种新的电子产品系统。基于激光打印机技术，这种新的进步导致了电子设备电路的台式机制造。在有关此技术的报告中纽约时报, the devices these desktop printable chips, often referred to as chiplets due their grain of sand size, could be used for include “flexible smartphones that won’t break when you sit on them; a pressure-sensitive skin for robot hands; and smart-sensing medical bandages that could capture health data and then be thrown away.”

Having received financing from the National Science Foundation and DARPA, Xerox PARC researchers have created a machine similar to a laser printer that can “precisely place tens or even hundreds of thousands of chiplets on a surface in exactly the right location and in the right orientation,” reports纽约时报.

我对这一进步的最大吸引力的是，据报道，这些芯片能够作为微处理器和计算机内存以及创建完整计算机所需的其他电路。纽约时报also reports that these chiplets can operate as analog devices known as microelectromechanical systems, or MEMS, that perform tasks like sensing heat, pressure or motion.

These two technology advances directly impact two of the most critical areas to modern manufacturing advancement—energy and computing power. Exactly how these technologies will play out in the manufacturing sector remain to be seen. But it’s obvious that both will have a big impact on the industry.

Read more Automation World coverage about how embedded technologies are changing automation.

下面的视频突出了石墨烯超级电容器的开发。