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NEWS EV BATTERIES
Hearable devices
collaboration
Boost for next-generation
EV batteries
UNIST RESEARCHERS DEVELOP NEW CATALYST THAT COULD BOOST MAB
PERFORMANCE. NEIL TYLER REPORTS
A research team, af liated with UNIST, has announced that a new catalyst could help boost MAB
performance, in terms of discharge and charge ef ciency.
Metal-Air Batteries (MABs) use oxygen from ambient air as recourses to store and convert
energy and have received growing attention for their potential use in electric vehicles (EVs) owing
to their large storage capacity, lightweight, and affordability.
The research team, led by Professor Guntae Kim in the School of Energy and Chemical
Engineering at UNIST, has unveiled a new composite catalyst that ef ciently enhances the
charge-discharge performances when applied to MABs.
It comprises of a very thin layer of metal oxide lms which are deposited on a surface of
perovskite catalysts - the interface that’s naturally formed between the two catalysts enhances
the overall performance and stability of the new catalyst.
MABs, in which oxygen from the atmosphere reacts with metals to generate electricity, are
one of the lightest and most compact types of batteries. They are equipped with anodes made
up of pure metals (i.e. Lithium, Zinc, Magnesium, and Aluminum) and an air cathode that is
connected to air. Due to their high theoretical energy density, MABs have been considered a
strong candidate for next-generation electric vehicles.
MABs currently use rare and expensive metal catalysts for their air electrodes, such as
platinum (Pt). They have proved too expensive for commercialisation so, as an alternative,
perovskite catalysts that exhibit similar catalyic performance have been proposed, however there
have been issues with low activation barriers.
Professor Kim has solved this issue with this new composite catalyst by combining two types
of catalysts, each of which have shown excellent performance in charge and discharge reactions,
according to the teams involved.
The metal catalyst (cobalt oxide), which performs well in charging, is deposited on a very thin
layer on top of the manganese-based perovskite catalyst (LSM), which performs well in discharge.
As a result, the synergistic effect of the two catalysts became optimal when the deposition
process was repeated 20 times.
Infi neon looks to address EV market
In neon Technologies, which is expecting
signi cant growth in automotive 48V
systems, is expanding its portfolio of
suitable power devices.
It is launching new packages for its
80V and 100V MOSFETs with OptilMOS
5 technology to meet the different
requirements of various 48V applications.
The company has also set up a new
manufacturing process at its Dresden facility
in Germany.
Among the products being added to the
company’s existing portfolio is the addition
of a third member to its TOLx family. The
new TOLT package has been developed to
enable heat dissipation through top-side
cooling via the top of the package instead
of via the PCB, allowing for an increase
in power of more than 20 percent while
reducing the cooling effort on the board.
In neon is also expanding the package
portfolio addressing less power-hungry
auxiliaries such as fans and pumps that are
also increasingly being transferred to the
48 V supply, with new versions in the small
S3O8 package (3.3 mm x 3.3 mm) for lower
currents up to 40A.
CEVA and Bragi have announced a strategic
collaboration to drive a new class of hearable
devices where the user experience is
customisable via a hearable app store. Target
devices include headsets, hearing aids, TWS
earbuds and other smart audio devices for the
consumer and the smart home.
The partnership takes advantage of CEVA’s
low power, CEVA-BX DSP architecture, along
with its advanced LLVM compiler and Eclipse
based development tool chain, and Bragi 4, a
newly de ned operating system (OS) designed
speci cally for hearables.
In conjunction with Bragi 4 OS, Bragi’s
commercial app store will enable technology
partners and experts to offer software apps
and services such as voice activation, voice
biometric, audio post processing and music
services. These software packages can be
licensed and downloaded directly to devices,
allowing individuals to personalise their
hearables user experience.
CEVA will also offer a range of its valueadded
software via the Bragi app store,
including ClearVox for noise reduction,
WhisPro for speech recognition, MotionEngine
for sensor fusion and the SenslinQ framework
for contextual awareness.
“Imagine purchasing noise-cancelling
software just before boarding a plane.
Encrypt communication data for sensitive
business conversations. Discover that you
hear better with voice ampli cation through
try-to-buy offers. On business travel, use your
headphones to translate from Chinese into
English. The possibilities are endless,” said
Nikolaj Hviid, founder and CEO of Bragi.
Through this collaboration, hearables
and other smart audio devices will become
exible products capable of adapting their
functionalities to their users through postpurchase
apps and services.
“Our collaboration with Bragi brings a gamechanging
approach to the design of hearables
and other audio devices, where the user
experience can be adapted, instantaneously,”
said Moshe Sheier, VP of Marketing at CEVA.
24 March 2020 www.newelectronics.co.uk
/www.newelectronics.co.uk