TenCell, Birmingham UK Feb 11th 2011

For very competitive pricing on Solid State Relays, Control Relays, Sensors, Power Modules, Micro Motors, Microswitches, and Pneumatic Valves, call Tencell or email sales@tencell.com. We’ve been stocking and supplying Crouzet and Crydom products for years so please visit www.tencell.com where you will find over 450,000 items listed and over 50,000 items in stock.

Regards

www.tencell.com

January 14^th 2011

TenCell, Birmingham UK

Three technologies to watch in 2011: silicon anodes, ambient energy harvesting, and very low power wireless. James Golley of TenCell takes you through them.

If there is a Cinderella in the battery world, it is the lithium ion anode. No glamorous metal oxides to develop, nor cunning structures to optimise, just gradual developments in two sorts of carbon.

However, 2011 looks like it might just be the year when the fairy godmother turns up and anodes go silicon. It has long been known that silicon can absorb nearly 10 times as much lithium as carbon, but this has not been much use because the silicon swells so much that the electrode falls to pieces. However, Oxfordshire-based Nexeon has quietly been working on a Nanostructured form of silicon that can repeatedly cope with plenty of lithium, and can be made in bulk. Just before Christmas, Nexeon revealed a prototype silicon anode 18650-size cell that it claimed not only exceeded the capacity of commercial cells (at 3.2Ah with C/3 discharge), but beat them on cycle life as well. It predicts 4Ah cells later this year.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the US also recently described robust silicon anodes, proving that there are at least two ways to make them – although Rensselaer’s technique does not look like it will scale to mass production in the near future. So keep an eye open for licensing activity amongst cell makers, unless some other disadvantage of silicon appears.

Not straying from power, also expect ambient energy harvesting activity – and not just using photo cells. Thanks to Linear Technology’s innovative LTC3108 and 09 self-oscillating boost converters, which will start-up from inputs of a few millivolts and deliver several volts, the tyranny of the 0.6V diode drop has been eliminated and tiny electromagnetic vibration harvesters have become far more practical, as have thermoelectric power sources – whose outputs are generally measured in mV. As it happens, last year Nextreme introduced a thermoelectric generator – HV37 – which produces hundreds of mV and tens of mW, and might just appear in commercial designs in 2011. What would be nice for vibration harvesters, and would possibly constitute a miracle, would be finding a way to spread the operating frequency band, or tune it on-the-fly. I wouldn’t hold your breath.

Meeting energy harvesters coming the other way comes the third technology to watch: very low power wireless technologies. Encoding schemes and protocols that have been developed specifically to minimise Joules/bit have helped a great deal here. ULP Bluetooth is some way there, but particularly for low bit rates from energy-scavenged wireless nodes – for sensing temperature or pH perhaps – await more developments. Medical monitoring is likely to be a driver for such nodes. Even in 2004, Belgian research lab IMEC was sending personal medical data across a body area network for 0.5nJ/bit, and this year it showed a descendent of that technology sending ECG data to an Android phone. And it is worth noting, it was using body temperature thermoelectrics to power some of its demonstrations.

A bonus for 2011 would be a mid-range car with LED headlights.

In May 2009, Hella predicted this before November 2010, and it didn’t seem to happen just yet, so perhaps 2011 will be the year.

Regards

James Golley

TenCell

James Golley, TenCell

Thursday 06 January 2011

With almost 100 tablets expected to be launched at this year’s International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, 2011 is set to be the year of the tablet device. James Golley of TenCell takes a look at the latest tablet announcements from CES 2011.

Toshiba Tablet

The new 10 inch Toshiba Tablet which runs Google’s Android Honeycomb operating system will debut this week. The 1.7lb (770g) tablet uses Nvidia’s Tegra 2 mobile processor and features front- and rear-facing cameras, access to an apps store and Wi-Fi internet connection. The name and price is still to be decided on by the PC-maker.

Motion CL900

Motion has introduced its first small form factor, rugged tablet PC running on Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system. The 10-inch, touchscreen tablet features Intel’s core i7 or core i5 vPro technology to improve battery life. Motion said the tablet was designed to integrate into business environments, being able to run existing enterprise applications to lower the cost of deployment.

“René Torres, director of marketing, netbook and tablet group at Intel, said, “With the power and performance of our upcoming ‘Oak Trail’ Intel Atom processor, along with the mobility and durability of the CL900, Motion is delivering an ideal productivity tool for workers on the move,”

The Motion device is expected to be available before June 2011.

Motorola Droid Xoom

According to internet reports, Motorola’s new tablet PC will be called Droid Xoom and will be unveiled before the end of the week. It is expected to run on the Honeycomb version of Google’s Android operating system and feature a Nvidia Tegra 2 processor as well as 32GB flash storage memory.

Lenovo LePad slate

Lenovo showed off its IdeaPad U1 hybrid with LePad slate.

The 10.1-inch HD tablet features a hybrid dual mode to allow users to switch between two different operating systems: Android when mobile and Windows 7 when docked in the U1 base. Built on Android 2.2, it is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and expected to be available in China during the first quarter of 2011.

Asus Eee Slate EP121

One of four tablet devices previewed by Asus at this year’s CES, Asus’s 12.1in Eee Slate EP121 tablet PC features an Intel core i5 processor, 64GB of flash storage and 4GB of memory as well as Flash 10.1 support and Windows 7 Home Premium. All models have a mini-HDMI port, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, two USB 2.0 ports and a 2-megapixel camera.

Other tablets introduced by Asus included the Eee Pad, Eee Pad Memo and Eee Pad Slider. Details on UK pricing and availability are yet to be confirmed.

Regards

TenCell

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