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Stanford Report — Dec 18,`07 — Dan Stober writes an in-depth article on Stanford’s nanowire battery at Stanford news service.

Stanford researchers have found a way to use silicon nanowires to reinvent the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power laptops, iPods, video cameras, cell phones, and countless other devices.

The new version, developed through research led by Yi Cui, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, produces 10 times the amount of electricity of existing lithium-ion, known as Li-ion, batteries. A laptop that now runs on battery for two hours could operate for 20 hours, a boon to ocean-hopping business travelers.

“It’s not a small improvement,” Cui said. “It’s a revolutionary development.”

The breakthrough is described in a paper, “High-performance lithium battery anodes using silicon nanowires,” published online Dec. 16 in Nature Nanotechnology, written by Cui, his graduate chemistry student Candace Chan and five others.

The greatly expanded storage capacity could make Li-ion batteries attractive to electric car manufacturers. Cui suggested that they could also be used in homes or offices to store electricity generated by rooftop solar panels.

“Given the mature infrastructure behind silicon, this new technology can be pushed to real life quickly,” Cui said.

The electrical storage capacity of a Li-ion battery is limited by how much lithium can be held in the battery’s anode, which is typically made of carbon. Silicon has a much higher capacity than carbon, but also has a drawback.

Silicon placed in a battery swells as it absorbs positively charged lithium atoms during charging, then shrinks during use (i.e., when playing your iPod) as the lithium is drawn out of the silicon. This expand/shrink cycle typically causes the silicon (often in the form of particles or a thin film) to pulverize, degrading the performance of the battery.

Cui’s battery gets around this problem with nanotechnology. The lithium is stored in a forest of tiny silicon nanowires, each with a diameter one-thousandth the thickness of a sheet of paper. The nanowires inflate four times their normal size as they soak up lithium. But, unlike other silicon shapes, they do not fracture.

Research on silicon in batteries began three decades ago. Chan explained: “The people kind of gave up on it because the capacity wasn’t high enough and the cycle life wasn’t good enough. And it was just because of the shape they were using. It was just too big, and they couldn’t undergo the volume changes.”

Then, along came silicon nanowires. “We just kind of put them together,” Chan said.

For their experiments, Chan grew the nanowires on a stainless steel substrate, providing an excellent electrical connection. “It was a fantastic moment when Candace told me it was working,” Cui said.

Cui said that a patent application has been filed. He is considering formation of a company or an agreement with a battery manufacturer. Manufacturing the nanowire batteries would require “one or two different steps, but the process can certainly be scaled up,” he added. “It’s a well understood process.” More at Stanford.edu

SUNNYVALE, Calif –BUSINESS WIRE– Dec 19, `07 — Yahoo! today announced that three world-renowned scientists from Yahoo! Research have been recognized for their achievements in fields key to developing the next-generation of Internet experiences, including computer science, artificial intelligence, data mining, and algorithm engineering.

Dr. Andrei Broder was named Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and Dr. Ron Brachman and Dr. Raghu Ramakrishnan were named Fellows of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). These prestigious honors recognize individuals who have made significant contributions to both the practical and theoretical aspects of computing and information technology.

Broder is a fellow and vice president for computational advertising and search technology at Yahoo! Research where he conducts new research on the intersection of information retrieval, machine learning, optimization, and microeconomics and leads the computational advertising group. He was selected for the honor of ACM Fellow for contributions to algorithms and web technology.

Brachman is the vice president of worldwide research operations for Yahoo! Research and is responsible for all operational activities for the organization; his responsibilities also include overseeing academic relations for all of Yahoo!. Brachman was selected as an IEEE Fellow for his leadership in knowledge representation and reasoning in computer science and artificial intelligence.

Ramakrishnan is chief scientist for Yahoo!’s audience group and a Yahoo! Research Fellow, heading up the community systems group. Ramakrishnan was selected as an IEEE Fellow for his contributions to the fields of deductive databases, data mining and query optimization.

ACM is an educational and scientific society uniting the world’s computing educators, researchers and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and address the field’s challenges.

IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional society. The organization fosters technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity. Through its more than 370,000 members in 160 countries, IEEE is a leading authority on a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics. More at Yahoo!

Taipei, Taiwan — Dec 19, `07 — DigiTimes is reporting on Motorola’s plan to launch its next-generation Linux-based “Ming” handsets in the second quarter of 2008, with the hand input intelligence handsets to be available in both high-end and entry-level versions, citing Bill Chen, general manager of of mobile device business at Motorola Taiwan.

DigiTimes further reports, “While Motorola’s R&D center in Beijing will continue to handle the development of the high-end version of the new Ming handsets, the US vendor will outsource the production of the new entry-level Ming handsets to the Taiwan-based Inventec Group, according to market sources, who also noted that the new Ming handsets will continue to support the 2.5G standard.

Motorola on December 17 launched its high-end 3.5G RAZR V9 in Taiwan, and the company plans to introduce in Taiwan a Symbian-based ROKR Z8, Windows Mobile-based Q9 and three entry-level models, including the W360 and W213, before the end of this year, Chen said.” More at DigiTimes.

East Fishkill, NY and TOKYO, Japan –December 18, `07 — IBM and Toshiba today announced that they have entered into a joint development agreement on 32nm bulk complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process technology.

Since December 2005, IBM and Toshiba have collaborated on fundamental advanced research related to semiconductor process technologies at the 32nm technology generation and beyond at the research facilities in Yorktown and Albany, New York. Building on the success of this ongoing research collaboration, the two companies have agreed to extend the scope of the joint development work to now include 32nm bulk CMOS process technology.

Under the new agreement, Toshiba joins a six company IBM Alliance for 32nm bulk CMOS process technology development based in East Fishkill, New York.

Through this collaboration IBM and Toshiba plan to accelerate development of next-generation technology to achieve high-performance, energy-efficient chips at the 32nm process level, and to enhance the companies’ leadership in the global semiconductor industry.

“This agreement caps a year of extraordinary momentum for IBM and its semiconductor Alliance Partners,” said Gary Patton, vice president for IBM’s Semiconductor Research and Development Center. “In 2008 we’ll continue to strive to collectively deliver the industry breakthroughs and manufacturing milestones that come from talented engineers and semiconductor experts working in an open, collaborative environment with access to world class R&D facilities such as UAlbany NanoCollege’s Albany NanoTech complex.” More at Toshiba.

BANGALORE, India –BUSINESS WIRE– Nov 29, ‘07 — AMD, a leading global provider of innovative processing solutions in the computing, graphics and consumer electronics markets, today announced the opening of a new silicon design and platform research and development (R&D) facility in Bangalore.

As India’s role and importance in AMD’s global R&D network increases, the number of employees in Bangalore continues to grow, requiring a new facility that will accommodate the current team while also providing room for future growth. Employees will move into the new 52,000 square-foot center upon its completion and continue to focus on development of AMD’s most advanced, next-generation processing solutions.

Dr. Hector Ruiz, AMD’s Chairman and CEO, traveled to Bangalore to inaugurate the newly built center, which is comprised of state-of-the-art office space offering a host of modern amenities to improve the overall work experience.

“Our engineering employees in India play a critical role in AMD’s global design network, and this new R&D center gives them the world-class equipment and resources they need to excel,” said Ruiz. “In AMD’s quest to become the technology partner of choice for the industry, this facility is vital to help us design and deliver industry-leading solutions specifically tailored to the needs of our customers in India, and for all our customers worldwide.”

Engineering staffs in Bangalore are playing the lead role on “Shanghai,” AMD’s first 45nm quad-core microprocessor, and are currently involved in design testing and optimization of the new chip. Prior to their efforts on “Shanghai,” teams were responsible for delivering key intellectual property (IP) for the first Quad-Core AMD Opteron microprocessor, previously codenamed “Barcelona.” More at AMD.