The graphic will of course have many meanings and inspirations.  The use of spray paint seems to take inspiration from urban culture, gaming, art and creativity to name but a few.  Of particular note are the bits that extend beyond the border.  Is Apple thinking outside the box?  Does this coincide with the rumours of resurrecting the Think Different slogan?

With regard to the copy Apple does not usually give this much away.  The term “latest creation” particularly suggests new hardware.  Of course Apple does not separate the hardware and software, so expect some neat software thrown in there.  But, does it also suggest a new semiconductor, namely the use of their own integrated circuit designed by the PA Semi team that was acquired in the spring of 2008.

A central aspect of Apple’s success has to be integration.  Their products have increasingly been about an integrated approach to hardware and software that makes the end result larger than the sum of the individual parts.  An iPod, for example, does not have a particularly unique parts list.  It is however brought to life through the understanding and design of an intuitive UI, an integrated approach to content delivery, and simply appealing design.

Is the tablet where Apple goes one step further? At the time of the PA Semi acquisition Apple indicated that it further wanted to differentiate itself from any and all competition through the design of its own semiconductors.  Off the shelf processors are in large designed and sold with a set of features, ports and performance that will appeal to a range of clients, including your competition.  So what happens if you could design your own processor with blocks tailored solely to your device and its application.  Remember, you control everything.

The tablet or any device between an iPhone and Macbook will need more processing power than the former and less than the latter, suggesting a general purpose microprocessor is too much and a single, smaller logic core is too little.  By the same token any tablet would not be used for general computing, but would be graphics intensive with gaming and video likely being target markets.  So what could you design? Since PA Semi has low power experience and you want a long battery life you would certainly have some novel power management functionality.  As you do not need a particularly high clock or large cores how about several smaller cores running at lower clocks.  For graphics why stop at a single or dual core, how about a parallel compute engine to crunch all those polygons?  There are lots of ideas and it is all just tantalizing speculation at this point.

Whether it happens with whatever is introduced next week or in later iterations it makes for some compelling speculation.  Whenever an Apple/ PA Semi chip does emerge it will certainly keep the reverse engineering houses busy as large semiconductor manufacturers and OEMs will want to decode the circuit blocks thereon.  Ah…integration.

In its coverage of this news the CBC provided commentary into the relevance of the Nobel Prize today.  During the course of a segment on the radio it was submitted that the Nobel prize is still quite relevant as it recognizes fundamental work that is not simply associated with patentable material.  It was certainly implied that anything patentable is somehow of lesser value.  This is simply not true as fundamental research and patentable subject matter both have their place and value.

The fundamental discoveries for which a Nobel prize is given might explore a basic physical concept or relationship.  Invention then builds on top of these discoveries, developing systems and methods that are applications or derivatives of the basic understanding.  It is this layer of inventing, lying on top of fundamental discoveries, that develops the building blocks for products from which the public draws benefit and pleasure.  Patents have been a part of this second stage for some 500 years.  At their heart they are a bargain between the inventor and the state whereby the inventor discloses the invention for the benefit of further invention and the state grants a limited monopoly.

Digging back into the records of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, one finds that Willard Boyle had numerous patents issued to him during his tenure at AT&T Bell Labs.  Of these United States Patent 3,792,322, entitled “Buried Channel Charge Coupled Devices” and 3,796,927, entitled “Three Dimensional Charge Coupled Devices” appear to directly stem from the recognized CCD research.  The former appears directed to a problems associated with surface states and mentions an example where the charge is generated by photon absorption.  The latter is directed to shift registers and other logic circuits that might be built from CCDs.  Therefore, as is often the case there are a number of possible applications of the fundamental research being explored around the time , with patents generally being associated with the developments of working structures and solutions to problems encountered in application of the initial discovery.

Last week Capstone Turbine released a photo of a micro-turbine powered hybrid electric vehicle that was engineered by Langford Performance Engineering in the UK.  The claims made in the associated copy were quite impressive, including an 80 mpg fuel efficiency.  This number tops the fuel efficiency of current well-known hybrids by at least 50%. While it is not our intention to quibble about the particular numbers this type of difference suggests a real paradigm difference and not “simply” an incremental decrease in body weight, for example.

As indicated in the Capstone release and Langford’s patent application WO2009/050456 the micro-turbine is part of the electricity generating system and is not part of the traditional power-train.  An electric motor provides all drive power.  In this configuration the turbine only runs as needed and can be operated to optimize efficiency, not worrying about the power requirements of the instant driving conditions.  While this configuration is central to the efficiency increase it does not diminish from the micro-turbine’s improved fuel efficiency and reduced emissions.  Finally, the turbine is claimed to be only 50% of the weight of a traditional internal combustion engine.

While the push for the electric car is real, the inability of the current power grid to handle the associated additional load is even more real. The above development of the auto-turbine advances the case for the continued role of liquid fuels for transportation.  Whether it be Iogen’s cellulosic ethanol, which was coincidentally made available at an Ottawa gas station last week, or Dynamotive’s bio-diesel that are both bio-mass based, advanced bio-fuels become even more attractive with a decoupling from the internal combustion engine.  Continued progress in advanced fuels that do not source food crops and auto-engines will likely go a long way to reducing the carbon footprint of cars while mitigating the need for new electricity infrastructure.

Recent ads have presented an apparent price difference between Apple and PC laptops. Phrases like “too sexy” or “too cool” are used with inference that this is an appropriate assessment of Apple offerings. There is no denying the effort Apple puts into design. However, only considering design when comparing prices, as if the innards simply fit on a checklist, does not give due respect to Apple’s engineering. Apple has both historically advanced and continues to advance hardware engineering along with its more obvious efforts in design.
Apple has, in fact, set trends in hardware over the years that other manufacturers later followed. Whether it be the adoption of CD-ROM drives in the early 90’s, dropping the floppy and moving to USB in first generation iMacs, or advancing heat management knowledge with the G4 Cube, Apple has a record of breaking new ground. Moving forward to the winter release of the 17” MacBook Pros, Apple introduced a non-replaceable battery with an advertised battery life of 1000 charging cycles or approximately 5 years. In describing the battery on their website Apple mentions a feature they refer to as adaptive charging, where the charging current is varied with consideration of the instant condition of the battery cells.
Going back a bit in issued US patents assigned to Apple one finds 5,998,972 which is entitled “A Method and Apparatus for Rapidly Charging a Portable Computing Device”. While the title suggests this patent is directed to methods for rapid charging, reviewing the specification (column 6, in particular) suggests the methods are very similar to those alluded to above. Namely, charging current is varied during a charging cycle based on the instant conditions of the battery. This is illustrated in Fig. 4 where an ideal charge curve 402, a traditional charge I-V curve 404 and I-V curve 406, the curve according to an embodiment of the invention, are presented. As is apparent from curve 406 the current is varied over the charge cycle.

In the end Apple has been researching methods around battery charging for some time, likely implementing the assembled knowledge into the new 17” MacBook Pro battery. It is quite possible that we are witnessing a shift in the laptop battery paradigm, even if it is not all that sexy.

We last posted an article about thermoelectrics in January 2008. Since then thermoelectrics have continued to be an area of great interest, as the technologies develop and their utility is further demonstrated. A case in point is this recent abstract from Nature that discusses advances in superlattice-based structures. It was of interest to note co-authors from Intel are listed. This is no surprise as the semiconductor industry has always been considered a prime market for superlattice based thermoelectric structures because of the industries great experience in the deposition techniques and equipment that is applicable to superlattice device fabrication.
A look at the author list of the above abstract reminded us of United States patent 7,279,796 (the ‘796 patent) to Hu, Chrysler and Mahajan, and assigned to Intel. The ‘796 patent details a basic structure that integrates a thermoelectric device and integrated circuit. Intel is defining its space within the thermoelectric landscape.

With reference to the above representative figure from the ‘796 patent the integrated circuit 14 is located on one side of silicon wafer 12, while the thermoelectric module 56 is located on the other side. Metal vias 46 and 48 then connect module 56 to the power and ground planes, within the metallization 16, respectively.
The involvement of Intel in thermoelectrics suggests the technology will be further advanced towards commercialization now that such a large, experienced semiconductor company is lending support. Thermoelectrics have always presented a compelling story and promise. Integration of thermoelectric structures within integrated circuits could provide competitive advantages in either reducing the power consumed in mobile devices or reducing the energy expended cooling large installations. This goes hand-in-hand with the growing efforts to “green’ data centers and other IT infrastructure.

“Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and Zero Emission Energy Plants, Inc. Sign Gasification Licensing Agreement”,

“Vegawatt plugs in grease-fired restaurant generator”, and

“Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and AERI Collaborate to Develop Gasification Technology”;

are but three headlines that have appeared over the last several months regarding systems and/ or methods for processing a carbon-containing feedstock into some type of fuel. There are a myriad of techniques for the above processing, each having a different set of pressure, atmosphere and reaction conditions. The particular combination of reaction conditions being dictated by at least the nature of the feedstock and the desired end product.

With consideration to the second headline, the Vegawatt system is designed to use waste vegetable oil to generate on-site electricity. It is indicated on the Vegawatt website that a four-stage cleaning process is used to process the waste cooking oil for use as a fuel. In this case the original hydrocarbon chain is most likely still intact. Such a process is quite different from that of the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) technology.

A flavour for the PWR gasification technology emerges from visible patent documents. In general PWR appears to have developed a high temperature, high pressure system, similar to a so-called entrained flow gasifier. Published US patent application 2008/0141913 describes a dump cooled gasifier. In particular it describes structures around a slag-based regenerative liner. Published US patent application 2008/0060914 and issued US patent 7,303,597 describe feed systems for use with a gasification system. A common theme emerging from these and other PWR documents is the development of technology around providing for a continuous gasification process.

While the above two approaches appear quite different on the surface there is a least one common thread, the use of what would have been once considered waste as a source of energy. Both processes also discuss the implementation of “waste” heat to further improve the overall energy captured from the fuel.

A recent edition of Barron’s Online featured an article on Emcore and its Concentrating Photovoltaic(CPV) technology. On August 13th OPEL International announced that its CPV technology received a strong reception at Canaccord Adams’ 28th Annual Growth Conference. This latter release went on to say that while CPV technology is not new it is now coming into its own in the marketplace. Finally, a CPV technology primer on Solfocus’ website indicates that concentrating photovoltaics have been an established science since the 1970’s but are only now reaching commercial viability.

Two questions: Why has CPV technology apparently been around for so long yet only now being commercialized? and How are the various entrants in this market space defining themselves technologically?

The fundamental concept behind CPV systems is the use of a system to reflect or focus incoming solar energy down to a much smaller area than the original incident light, such that a much smaller area of photovoltaic (PV) material is required. A concentrating factor of 500 is common. Along with the concentrated solar energy comes elevated temperatures. In fact the temperature is elevated to the point where traditional Si-based PV systems are not appropriate. The answer to the first question is likely related to the development of multi-junction PV materials that can operate at “CPV” temperatures.

Some thoughts on the second question.

Emcore appears to be designing the entire system from the multi-junction material to the Imaging optics to the structure for supporting the entire system. United States published application 2008/0245409 is but one example of Emcore’s work on the PV material, while issued patent 7,381,886 describes a terrestrial solar array and its components.

Solfocus appears to be concentrating its efforts on the cell optics, integrating technology licensed from Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) and purchased tracking technology. Recently published United States patent application 2008/01233313 describes a semiconductor mount for the PV cell, within the overall cell array. It is noted in paragraph [0043] that suitable triple junction cells may be provided by Sharp, Emcore or Spectrolab.

Developments associated with work at PARC are outlined in various patent documents including published United States patent application 2006/0231133.

On October 15th MIT’s Technology Review published an interesting article entitled “Water-Repelling Metals”. The article introduces GE developments around an anti-fouling metal surface and highlights a whole host of applications that might benefit. It is noted here that these are not niche applications. Rather they represent a spectrum of industrial applications that could be made more efficient or allow the elimination of related processes. Aircraft de-icing being one example of an environmentally nasty related process that might someday be mitigated through alteration of aircraft surface properties.

While indicating that GE was shy on technical details around these advances, the article noted that inspiration for the developments came from lotus-plant leaves that have a nanocrystalline wax structure. So what is GE doing?

Searching of the USPTO’s pre-grant patent database found several published applications of interest. Of these US20070031639 will be considered here. As suggested by the lotus-plant reference GE is developing textured surfaces which modify the wettability of the surface. US20070031639 describes surfaces that incorporate various geometries of features where the presence of the features, of a particular geometry, change the wettability of the surface.

Aspects of the prescribed feature geometry can be discussed with reference to Fig. 3, reproduced below. The features 130 have a height 310 (h), a width 330 (a) and a spacing (b) that is not numbered. It is noted that the features 130 can be “above” or “below” the surface. Paragraph [0016] presents a broad range of feature shapes, including cubes, rectangular prisms, cones and nanowires.

With regard to material systems paragraph [0010] outlines that the surface may be a metal or a metallic alloy, while paragraph [0032] indicates that the features 130 may be a metal, intermetallic, semi-metal or non-metal, with the latter group including oxides.

Finally, paragraphs [0034] to [0037] present various possible methods of fabricating surface features 130. Anodized aluminum is presented as an example of a porous surface that might be appropriate.

Overall, this is probably an area of interesting future developments, particularly with regard to methods of fabricating the appropriate features in a given material system.

On July 29, 2008 Capstone Turbine announced the receipt of an order from Israel based HelioFocus for the modification and development of a C65 microturbine to operate on solar energy. While much of the investment community and press in general is focused on the development and implementation of photovoltaic (PV) based solar systems, this announcement considers an alternate way of capturing solar energy.

In Capstone’s recent Q4 conference call it was indicated that solar turbines are considered an area of great interest, where solar energy would be used as a heat source instead of the burning of a fuel. It was also indicated that the turbine could also be operated using fuel when there is insufficient solar energy, such as at night. The concept seems, on the face of it, quite simple. However, the details likely lie in the ability to impart a sufficient temperature rise to the compressed air and the ability to integrate a solar collector, solar receiver and microturbine.

Let’s consider a couple of patents that outline technology that might be involved in this solar turbine. United States Patent 6,748,742 (‘742 patent), assigned to Capstone, discloses a turbine system that is capable of using multiple fuel sources, a control system therefore and a method of operation thereof. Of interest here is Figure 5, which presents a partial section end view of a turbine that incorporates an external heat source 600. In Figure 5 connection 376 collects air from the compressor. The air then flows through compressor discharge port 376P, travels through heat exchanger/ mixer 606 where it is heated by external heat source 600, and is brought back to the turbine via inlet port 384. In this case the external heat source 600 would be solar energy and the exchanger 606 would be a device appropriate for transferring this energy to the compressed air.

Research around HelioFocus led to the research of Prof. Jacob Karni and United States Patent 7,042,857 (‘857 patent) issued thereto. The ‘857 patent discloses a Solar Receiver with a Plurality of Working Fluid Inlets, which might be suitable for use as the exchanger 606. Figure 1 of the ‘857 patent presents a solar receiver 2, having a receiver chamber 12, inlet ports 17a-17d and outlet port 18. The nature of the fluid flow from inlets 17a-17d is discussed, as is the use of solar absorbing particles within the fluid to assist in the transfer of energy to the fluid. It is also mentioned that the receiver may implement a single inlet for working fluid, which may be free of absorbing particles. Test results presented in Table 1 indicate that air had an exit temperature of 1630 ºC for a particle loading of 4.5 g/m³.

Of interest would be the final configuration of the various elements including the turbine, receiver and parabolic solar concentrator. In the end we will be looking at the usual parameters, including system cost, efficiency and real estate requirements. However, one very compelling attribute of the proposed system is the ability to operate on different sources of energy to provide for a continuous output of power.

On March 31st the Intel/ STMicroelectronics joint venture Numonyx emerged as an independent company. While the first priority of Numonyx will be the inherited Flash businesses its phase change memory efforts did receive considerable editorial space. The various articles were a bit fuzzy around what phase change memory will and will not be able to do. Statements such as “more robust” and that it may yield a “billion dollar savings” as an SRAM replacement were set in print. At least the ghost of Universal Memory was generally not disturbed.

As noted in an earlier article PCRAM has faced two important challenges to which considerable research has been directed. First, the basic data storage mechanism consumes considerable power when toggling between phases as would be required during a write, for example. This power requirement has always been and is likely still a focus of research, evidenced by the considerable number of patents around structures, materials and processes for reducing the programming current. We recall that the memory cell must be heated to around 600 C to invoke the necessary phase change.

Second, the write endurance of PCRAM is somewhere around 100 million writes. While the reasons behind this are a bit more nebulous to the general public, it is likely associated with the volume change that occurs with the phase change. In the end this is a large difference from the theoretical limitless endurance of a phase change and is 9 orders of magnitude off what is considered as limitless and is capable for both SRAM and DRAM. Thus, at the moment, high endurance NVM or RAM applications seem out of reach.

Finally, when looking at the Numonyx website and reading the press the acronym PCRAM is not being used. They simply refer to Phase Change Memory (PCM). The obvious difference is the loss of the “Random Access”. This might be a subtle change in message to position PCM away from the RAM (DRAM and SRAM) replacement promises to focus on its Flash replacement opportunities, which will no doubt be large.