No. 450: A newly developed adhesive agent to increase the capacity of a lithium-ion battery by 40% (February 29, 2012)

Technology

Zeon, one of Japan’s leading makers of special synthetic rubbers and high-performance resins, developed a new adhesive agent that can increase the capacity of a lithium-ion battery by 30-40%. The company is the world’s largest maker of adhesive agents used for anodes of high capacity batteries with a share exceeding 70% in the world market. The company made the new adhesive agent by dispersing a special synthetic rubber material in water. The new product is mixed with power graphite to make anodes.

The technology to mix a silicon material with graphite is available now, but adding a silicon material to an anode is not problem-free because silicon is liable to bloat. The company adjusted the molecular design, controlled the bloat, and increased durability to slow down deterioration. The new adhesive agent proved that a silicon material can be added to an anode up to 30%. The company started to ship samples of the new adhesive that will be put on the market within the year.

No. 449: Accelerating technological innovation to reduce charging frequency of smartphone (February 28, 2012)

Technology

With the rapidly growing popularity of smartphones, demand for reducing charging frequency is growing among consumers. A research team led by Keio University professor Hirotada Kuroda developed a technology data processing technology that can reduce the power consumption of a smartphone by up to 10%. The new technology is for wireless connection between the CPU and the memory. Data are traded between them using the electric field and the magnetic field created when an electric signal is transmitted, making it possible to reduce voltage to operate the memory. The research team confirmed that the wireless data processing can decrease the power consumption by 90% as compared with the existing wired data processing. In addition to the ability to reduce power consumption, the new technology has more than three times faster data processing speed than the existing technology.

Fujitsu developed a small amplifier to be incorporated in a smartphone. Using the technology that allows for the management of optimal voltage depending on usage, the company successfully reduced the power consumption by 30%. An amplifier is vital to intensify the output of electric waves that contain voice and data and deliver them to the base station, and consumes about 10% of power consumed by a smartphone. MM Research Institute, a research firm on the IT market, reported that more than 50% of smartphone users were dissatisfied with the waiting time before his or her smartphone finishes charging. A smartphone trades 10-20 times more data than a mobile phone. The race to launch the technology to reduce charging frequency will supposedly heat up.

No. 448: A new drive element for the electroluminescence display (February 27, 2012)

Technology

The market of the organic light emitting display is expected to grow dramatically in the near future because the organic EL TV will be thinner and higher in image quality than the LCD TV. The thin-film transistor (TFT) affects greatly the image quality and power consumption of an organic EL TV. Idemitsu Kosan built a trial product of a drive element to be used for the organic EL display using new materials. It has over 40 times more processing capacity than the drive element made of silicon currently widespread and over 4 times more processing capacity than the new element to be employed by Samsung Electronics.

The company built the trial product using a semiconductor material of indium gallium oxide (IGO). It adjusted the blending quantity of gallium and developed a high-quality and polycrystal thin film using its self-developed film forming technology. The new element has more than 40 times higher mobility than amorphous silicon. Samsung Electronics is reported to consider adopting indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) developed by a researcher of Tokyo Institute of Technology (TIT). Idemitsu’s new product has four times higher mobility than the TIT’s product, thus the element can be smaller.       

No. 447: Charging a hybrid bus at a bus stop by a feed under ground (February 25, 2012)

Technology

Hino Motors will commercialize the hybrid bus that charges using a feed buried in the ground of a bus stop next year at the earliest. The bus can charge every time it stops at a bus stop, and it can be like an electric bus. The hybrid bus that the company plans to introduce has both an electric motor and a diesel engine. Unlike the conventional hybrid bus that charges using the power generated when the brake is applied, Hino’s hybrid bus charges by dint of electromagnetic induction that generates electric current by changing the magnetic energy between the power receiving unit installed under the bud floor and feed buried in a bus stop. The generated electricity is stored in the lithium-ion battery installed on the roof of the bus. In an emergency, the hybrid bus can supply power to outside.  

Hino has been working on substantiative experiments with National Traffic Safety and Environment Laboratory since 2002. Because the two organizations confirmed that the charging performance is now enough for commercialization, Hino is preparing to market the hybrid bus as a route bus of a local government. It is negotiating with local governments including Tokyo on how to construct the infrastructure. The price of the hybrid bus is not yet decided. Hino introduced a hybrid bus in 1991 for the first time in the world and sold about 900 hybrid buses and 8,500 hybrid commercial vehicles to date.

No. 446: Scheduled mass production of gallium nitride crystals (February 24, 2012)

Technology

With the stagnant sales of general-purpose chemical products, chemical companies are eager to introduce high value-added products to increase their profitability. Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings plans to mass produce high-definition compound substrates used for power semiconductors and the light-emitting part of an LED starting this October. Because Mitsubishi’s product has higher conversion efficiency from electricity to light, it can reduce power consumption by 50-70% as compared with the existing LED besides offering a longer operating life. Mitsubishi is now building a plant with an investment of 500 million yen.

The company developed the technology to produce gallium nitride crystal, which is the raw material of a substrate, effectively and succeeded in reducing the deficit of small holes inside the crystal considerably, enabling LED makers to improve the yield ratio. The light-emitting part of the existing LED lighting is mostly a sapphire substrate. The gallium nitride substrate is superior to the sapphire substrate because the former has lower electrical power loss and withstands higher output than the latter, but a highly advanced technology is needed to produce gallium nitride substrates at a reasonable cost. With the newly developed technology, Mitsubishi is confident that the gallium nitride substrate can compete with sapphire substrate successfully. It plans to ship 500 gallium nitride substrates, which is equivalent to 100,000 LED bulbs, per month starting this October. The company plans to increase the monthly production capacity to 6,000 pieces in 2013 and to 30,000 pieces in 2015 to take the initiative in the market. 

No. 445: A semiconductor memory of the next-generation that is faster and more power-efficient (February 23, 2012)

Technology

Resistance Random Access Memory (ReRAM) characterized by low power consumption and faster processing speed attracts wide attention as the next-generation semiconductor memory, and leading electric companies are busily occupied with the development. The ReRAM keeps data even if power is cut off. Panasonic developed a ReRAM that has 20 times faster processing speed than the existing NAND-type flash memory. The company plans to put it into practical use in a few years.

Panasonic applied a new diode that applies the current bi-directionally in place of a transistor to the electronic circuit. By forming the circuit that prevents the leakage of electric current, it successfully made the area of memory element smaller and increased writing speed. Because the existing semiconductor production process can be used, the production cost of the new semiconductor memory is expected to remain unchanged. The company plans to mass-produce the new product within the year for the first time in the world. Communications traffic is increasing dramatically with the explosive spread of smartphones, and demand for a memory with faster processing speed and lower power consumption has been growing stronger.

No. 444: A robot that searches what you need on your behalf (February 22, 2012)

Technology

When you have to search something in an office, a robot can find it on your behalf. Hitachi unveiled the upgraded version of its guide robot EMIEW 2 introduced in 2007. The new version is 80 cm high, and weighs 14 kg. With the help of two wheels, it can travel at 6 km/h.  

You need to install multiple indoor cameras in your office. When you ask the robot aloud “Where is my watch?” the robot will get the image of your watch in the database containing 100 million images on the Internet using the special software in less than one second. It checks the image on the Internet with the image it gets from the in-house cameras, and pinpoints the place where the watch is located. It replies to you with the exact location of the watch, and it takes you to the location if you so desire. The company developed the technology to calculate the optimal posture of the robot instantaneously to prevent it from falling when it goes around a curve. Thanks to this technology, the robot can travel in a balanced manner without reducing speed. The company plans to put the new robot into practical use and market it to business offices and hospitals in less than five years.