News


Supercapacitor development improves energy retention

27 May 2009 News

Research into efficient charge storage mechanisms has always been an area of interest to the electronics industry, specifically for application segments such as consumer electronics.

The ability to charge a storage device and maintain the charge over a considerable amount of time have been the two most important performance markers of any charge storage technology.

Over the past decade, supercapacitors have been an area of interest to the research fraternity focusing on development of highly efficient battery technologies. Supercapacitors, or ultracapacitors, are electrochemical capacitors that have an extremely high energy density.

While supercapacitors have made a performance mark through their ability to acquire charge at very high speeds, industrial experts feel that there is still a lot of potential to improve their retention capacity. In the current scenario, even the best of the supercapacitors discharge at a very high rate, restricting their dominance in the industrial space.

In an attempt to improve the retention capability of supercapacitors, a team of researchers from the University of California in Los Angeles has developed a manufacturing process for supercapacitors that is said to improve their retention capacity. The process employs single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). Nanotubes are considered to have the potential to replace conventionally used silicon in applications such as CPUs, memories and radio circuits, due to their small size and very encouraging electrical characteristics.

Traditional supercapacitors are manufactured in layers with a viscous solution between plates, similar to a capacitor. When a voltage is applied across the two electrodes, the positive ions head very quickly to one electrode, and the negative ones to another, building up a charge. This process helps the supercapacitor to store energy at a faster rate, but doesn’t provide resistance from discharging.

In the new process suggested by the team from UCLA, carbon nanotubes were sprayed onto plastic films and two such films were sandwiched between an electrolyte of a water-soluble synthetic polymer, phosphoric acid and water. As a result, an ultrathin supercapacitor is formed, which is in the order of micrometres. This process prevents the supercapacitor from discharging too quickly.

The current implementation of this manufacturing process yields an equivalent of 70 kilowatts per kilogram of energy (9 watt hours per kilogram) – well below the power available in traditional lithium-ion batteries, due to energy losses seen when discharging the supercapacitor. An unusually high resistance exists when energy is moved into or out of the device.

The team is working on resolving these issues, and this effort is expected to result in super thin capacitors, which can be very large and rectangular, about 1 mm thick, making them suitable for use in extremely thin cellphones and mobile gadgets. As these supercapacitors power devices for an extended time period, they can also be charged via remote magnetic fields that do not require wires. As these carbon nanotube-based supercapacitors have properties such as fast charging, reliability, long-term cycling, and the ability to deliver significantly more power than batteries, they are expected to find application in power saving features in CPUs.

For more information contact Patrick Cairns, Frost & Sullivan, +27 (0)21 680 3274, patrick.cairns@frost.com, www.frost.com





Share this article:
Share via emailShare via LinkedInPrint this page

Further reading:

RF antenna solutions for IoT devices
News
Mouser Electronics and Amphenol RF have teamed up for a brand-new webinar titled ‘RF antenna solutions for IoT devices and smart technology’.

Read more...
Wideband GNSS testing system
RF Design News
The LabSat 3 Wideband Solution is a GNSS testing system with support for recording and replay in the upper L-Band (1559-1610 MHz) and lower L-Band (1164-1300 MHz). It has three RF channels, a recording ...

Read more...
New generation of 5G modules
Quectel Wireless Solutions News
Quectel Wireless Solutions announced the launch of its latest generation 5G New Radio (NR) module series, the RG650E and RG650V, both of which follow the 3GPP Release 17 standard. These industrial-grade ...

Read more...
Microcontroller with Bluetooth LE 5.3
Altron Arrow News
The STM32WBA 32-bit Wireless series from STMicroelectronics brings designers the performance, efficiency, and security required for Bluetooth Low Energy 5.3-enabled applications. The STM32WBA offers essential ...

Read more...
Configurable industrial AI computing
Brandwagon Distribution News
The Tensor-I22 IS from Brandwagon is the second generation in the company’s innovative industrial computer line, Tensor. The fanless industrial PC can be customised with a choice of CPU, memory, storage ...

Read more...
Comprehensive AI computing solution
Altron Arrow News
Powered by the NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin, the BOXER-8640AI fanless Box PC from AAEON Technology brings AI capabilities to the edge. The NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin’s Ampere architecture boasts 1792 CUDA and 56 ...

Read more...
Pure carbide GaN-on-SiC power amplifier
RFiber Solutions News
MACOM announced an expansion to its power amplifier product portfolio with the MAPC-A1605 7,0 kW power amplifier. This device is suitable for high-power and high-voltage aerospace and defence applications, ...

Read more...
Connectors with extreme density and performance
Spectrum Concepts News
Samtec’s family of board-to-board and cable assemblies feature extreme density with up to 1000 total I/Os on a 0,635 mm pitch, while still providing incredible 112 Gbps PAM4 performance. The AcceleRate ...

Read more...
Power efficient mid-range FPGA
ASIC Design Services News
The new imperatives of the intelligent edge – power efficiency, security and reliability – are forcing system architects and design engineers to find new solutions. For the growing number of system designers ...

Read more...
Edge-AI embedded computing
Rugged Interconnect Technologies News
The EMP-510 series from ADLINK is an 11th Gen Intel Core i5-based fanless computer. The system features an 11th Gen BGA SoC processor which is paired with up to 32 GB of DDR4 RAM. Up to four independent ...

Read more...