Archive : 9 August 2015 год

Low cost, lightweight and flexible dielectric polymers that can withstand high temperatures may enable energy storage and power conversion in electric vehicles and other applications, according to researchers at Penn State University in the US.

"Ceramics are usually the choice for energy storage dielectrics for high temperature applications," said Professor Qing Wang, "but they are heavy and are often brittle."

Looking to address the problem, the team developed a cross linked polymer nanocomposite containing boron nitride nanosheets. This flexible material has high voltage capacity for energy storage at elevated temperatures and can be photo patterned.

According to the researchers, the composite can withstand temperatures of more than 250°C under the application of high voltages. It is manufactured by mixing the polymer and the nanosheets, then curing the polymer either with heat or light to create crosslinks. Because the nanosheets are only 2nm thick and 400nm wide, the material remains flexible. The combination is said to provides 'unique dielectric properties', which include higher voltage capability, heat resistance and bendability.

"Our next step is to try to make this material in large scale and put it into a real application," said Prof Wang. "Theoretically, there is no exact scalability limit."

Author
Graham Pitcher

Source:  www.newelectronics.co.uk

High speed communications specialist Nine Ways Research & Development has launched NetFusion, an industrial Ethernet switch development board based on Microsemi's SmartFusion 2 FPGA. NetFusion is said to be designed specifically for use in industrial networking, site perimeter telemetry and telematics and industrial motor control, as well as other industrial applications.

"As a development or reference design kit, the board enables powerful features of the SmartFusion2 to be realised and made full use of in the field, particularly in the industrial environment," said Paul Bates, Nine Ways' CEO. "In particular, a key focus of NetFusion is the industrial networking segment where it can host various applicable industrial switches in the SmartFusion2's FPGA fabric."

Nine Ways – the UK subsidiary of German company MorethanIP – designed NetFusion to provide a platform for evaluating, developing and deploying 10/100/1000 industrial Ethernet switches. It is available in CAT5 and fibre/small form factor pluggable (SFP) variants and is intended to enable legacy communications and infrastructure to connect with high speed Ethernet and USB.

"SmartFusion2 is ideal for a variety of industrial Ethernet applications, and we are pleased the Nine Ways team sees the high value of this device," said Bruce Weyer, business unit manager at Microsemi.

Author
Graham Pitcher

Source:  www.newelectronics.co.uk