This company seems to have a battery that will provide energy for cars and other applications with a much higher density and lighter weight than Li-io n batteries. They talk about making "pores" in Si wafers with lithium anod e material. Some of what they say is a bit odd. Since the anode is lithiu m, clearly the lithium is removed and redeposited during use. Yet they cla im "No Li plating". They talk about using low cost Si wafers on older equi pment, but show 12 inch wafers.
They claim to be lower cost than Li-ion, but not by a lot, $150 vs. $180/kW h. It is not hard to find articles that expect Li-ion prices to fall below $100/kWh by 2024 which is when XNRGI expects to be in cars at high volume.
Even if they are the same price as Li-ion batteries, if they can reduce the weight and size that would be a huge benefit. They also claim to have lon ger lifespan.
It will be interesting to see how they do.
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Rick C.
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d other applications with a much higher density and lighter weight than Li- ion batteries. They talk about making "pores" in Si wafers with lithium an ode material. Some of what they say is a bit odd. Since the anode is lith ium, clearly the lithium is removed and redeposited during use. Yet they c laim "No Li plating".
They might mean that the lithium atoms only get electroplated onto silicon, rather than onto lithium atom stuck to silicon.
They'd need a lot of pores in the silicon to get enough surface area to be able to work with only a single, incomplete layer of lithium atoms, but tha t single atom-thick layer will have distinctly different thermodynamic prop erties than a layer of lithium on lithium.
Perhaps they only mean that the lithium won't block the pores by plating up thick enough deep in the pores to limit access to the electrolyte, but how you'd manage that isn't obvious.
inch wafers.
So what? Presumably they are talking about pits in the silicon surface rath er than pores running through it, where the maximum depth of the pit is lim ited by its diameter, so larger pits, deeper pits produced by an older fab working to coarser design rules would give them the same surface area.
IIRR laser-drilled pits can go a lot deeper for the same diameter as etched pits - aspect ratios approaching 100:1 versus 10 or 15:1 - but they'd hav e to be drilled one pit at time, and you'd get amorphous silicon condensed onto the single crystal wafer surface.
kWh. It is not hard to find articles that expect Li-ion prices to fall bel ow $100/kWh by 2024 which is when XNRGI expects to be in cars at high volum e.
he weight and size that would be a huge benefit. They also claim to have l onger lifespan.
Absolutely. Nano-engineering the electrolytic surface has to be the way to go.
and other applications with a much higher density and lighter weight than L i-ion batteries. They talk about making "pores" in Si wafers with lithium anode material. Some of what they say is a bit odd. Since the anode is li thium, clearly the lithium is removed and redeposited during use. Yet they claim "No Li plating".
n, rather than onto lithium atom stuck to silicon.
e able to work with only a single, incomplete layer of lithium atoms, but t hat single atom-thick layer will have distinctly different thermodynamic pr operties than a layer of lithium on lithium.
up thick enough deep in the pores to limit access to the electrolyte, but h ow you'd manage that isn't obvious.
2 inch wafers.
ther than pores running through it, where the maximum depth of the pit is l imited by its diameter, so larger pits, deeper pits produced by an older fa b working to coarser design rules would give them the same surface area.
Their site is actually one of the worst I've ever seen, but there is a pape r that has some technical detail, just not much. They show one illustratio n that looks like there are through holes in the Si wafer with anode on one end and cathode on the other. They also talk about coating the back of th e wafer with non-conductive layer to solve some problem I forget.
I assumed any fab that is mostly depreciated won't use 12 inch wafers, but maybe they've been out longer than I recall. I do recall the industry crie d "no mas" at the 12 inch point indicating they weren't sure 12 inches was better than 10 and definitely didn't want to go to 14 inches in the foresee able future. I guess it's past the point of diminishing returns.
ed pits - aspect ratios approaching 100:1 versus 10 or 15:1 - but they'd h ave to be drilled one pit at time, and you'd get amorphous silicon condense d onto the single crystal wafer surface.
I haven't seen anything that indicates the Si is anything other than a supp ort. So likely none of this matters. They do show very deep pores in the illustrations.
0/kWh. It is not hard to find articles that expect Li-ion prices to fall b elow $100/kWh by 2024 which is when XNRGI expects to be in cars at high vol ume.
the weight and size that would be a huge benefit. They also claim to have longer lifespan.
o go.
--
Rick C.
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+ Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209
rather than pores running through it, where the maximum depth of the pit is limited by its diameter, so larger pits, deeper pits produced by an older fab working to coarser design rules would give them the same surface area.
per that has some technical detail, just not much. They show one illustrat ion that looks like there are through holes in the Si wafer with anode on o ne end and cathode on the other. They also talk about coating the back of the wafer with non-conductive layer to solve some problem I forget.
t maybe they've been out longer than I recall. I do recall the industry cr ied "no mas" at the 12 inch point indicating they weren't sure 12 inches wa s better than 10 and definitely didn't want to go to 14 inches in the fores eeable future. I guess it's past the point of diminishing returns.
There's no direct connection between the maximum size of wafer that a fab c an handle and the design rules that they can meet, but wafer size has gone up over the years, and minimum feature sizes have gone down, so there's a c orrelation between the age of the fab, the size of wafer they can handle an d the minimum feature size they can achieve.
The last time I knew much about it was around 1987, when the Cambridge Inst ruments EBMF 10.5 couldn't handle wafers more than five inches in diameter, and the machine I was working on then could have handled six inches wafer s if it hadn't been cancelled.
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