Bobby Maher, Tecate, www.tecategroup.com

We’ve all seen a big push for green energy and renewable energy in 2008 mainly based on the high cost of fuel and the push for more environmentally friendly sources of energy. An apparent downfall for all renewable is the storage of energy and fluctuation in the source.  Thus a great push is placed on the energy storage capabilities such and batteries and ultracapacitors. One of the biggest technology impacts for 2009 will be the advancement and availability of energy storage sources to meet this growing demand.

A key player in the energy storage field is double layer capacitors or also known as ultracapacitors. Ultracapacitors do address one of the most demanding parts of the energy storage requirement; short term power with long life. Ultracapacitors are not a new technology and have been in use for decades.  They store energy in a static way rather than a chemical reaction, thus giving it a long life in the orders of 100,000’s of cycles compared to batteries with a life span or 100’s to 1000’s of cycles. One of its short coming has always been in the low voltage level of individual cells and the complexity of connecting then in a useful modules. Up to now the solution was with the end user.  Today there are companies which can provide the complete solution thus providing an easy path to integrate these high efficient energy sources.  We will see a big jump in the availability and efficiency of these devices in 2009 which should help the entire renewable energy domain.

Chris Schairbaum, Texas Instruments, www.ti.com

Cooling the climate one residence at a time…. This is the rising challenge of China’s air conditioning industry. China manufactures over 60 million air conditioning systems per year, and over the last five years, more than 98% of these systems have been remarkable energy hogs. Why? The vast majority of these units have no variable frequency (VF) electronic motor drives. Meaning, the system is either on, and consuming maximum energy, or it is off. There is no in between. VF motor drives are not a “new” technology or concept, but several dynamics are making way for an enormous impact of this technology on the Chinese air conditioning market entering 2009. 

Typically these systems would employ an alternating current (AC) induction motor. More efficient motors, such as brushless direct current (BLDC) motors or permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSM) were too expensive, as were VF motor drives that could increase energy efficiency for any of these motor types. Rising commodity prices, however, along with increased pressures to curtail energy demand and GHG emissions from air conditioning, created a new equation. It turns out that employing semiconductor-based VF drives to BLDC and PMSM motors for air conditioning systems significantly reduces the amount of copper and iron required in the motor, simultaneously reducing weight and cost, while boosting motor efficiency by 30% or more. All of this at the same cost as traditional systems. 

Talk about an impact! Close to 15% of Chinese-manufactured air conditioning systems are likely to adopt the advanced motors and technology in 2009, paving the way for near-100% adoption of the industry in the next five years.

B. Tod Cox, Uni-Pixel, www.unipixel.com 

Multi-touch applications will continue to open new doors in consumer electronics through a vastly improved, more intuitive, and creative human-machine interface.  Simply put, a multi-touch interface is made up of a flat-panel display and touch sensor that can recognize multiple simultaneous touch points.  When combined with motion/gesture sensing, complex interactions with electronic devices can become effortless and natural.

The iPhone has shown the world how multi-touch can make a very complex device extremely intuitive to use.  We are at the very beginning of a new paradigm for interacting with all electronic devices that contain displays—cell phones, cameras, computers, personal navigation devices, gaming devices, home appliances, automobiles, medical imaging equipment, televisions, and on and on. Multi-touch interfaces are already driving design changes into flat panel displays.  Many of today’s flat panels have a “bloom” or “aura” effect that distorts the displayed image when finger pressure is applied.

Additionally, the act of touching a smooth, flat surface leaves behind fingerprints that mar the image quality.  Fingerprint resistant films that overlay the multi-touch interface without affecting the visual performance of the display will be a consumer expectation. As the extent of the improvements in ease of use, and corresponding amount of use are fully understood, device strategies, use strategies, and business models will all be changed.