MEMS, Microfluidics and Microsystems Executive Review

Supercapacitors wrought from thin films

by R. Colin Johnson
Contributing Editor, MEMS Investor Journal

Supercapacitors are touted as the enablers of MEMS battery technologies, but so far thin film and other supercapacitor topologies have come up short of fulfilling the dream.  Now researchers at Drexel University claim to have discovered a method that doubles the capacity of thin film supercapacitors.  Such MEMS capacitors could enable chips to house their own rechargeable power sources, extending the battery lifetimes of all types of mobile devices from handsets to laptop computers.

MEMS technology to boost storage density

Flash memory chips are predicted to begin slowing down their bit density growth in the next few years due to lithography related constraints.  Nanochip is one of the startup companies which is working to get around these limitations.   The company is developing a new class of ultra-high-capacity storage chips based on MEMS technology.  Nanochip’s technology will enable the storage of tens of gigabytes of data per chip, the equivalent of many high-definition feature-length videos, at a substantially lower cost than today’s flash memory solutions.

The company reported last week that it raised a $14 million financing round led by Intel Capital.  This new financing round will allow the company to complete development of its first prototypes later this year to support design verification testing and limited customer sampling in 2009.  We spoke with Nanochip’s CEO Dr. Gordon Knight.

Nanochip's MEMS based memory

In April of this year Nanochip reported a new venture capital round of $10 million with Intel as the leading investor.  Nanochip is developing a new class of ultra-high-capacity MEMS-based storage chips. 

These new chips - with bit-densities enabling the storage of tens of gigabytes per chip or the equivalent of many high-definition feature-length videos - use a nano-probe array technology that can potentially go far beyond the expected limits of conventional lithography used in present semiconductor memory chips.  We recently spoke with Dr. Gordon Knight, the CEO of the company.

MEMS Based Memory: The Next Generation?

Cavendish Kinetics is a fabless semiconductor company active in the area of design and integration of MEMS devices into standard CMOS processes.  In particular, Cavendish Kinetics has developed the Nanomech™ embedded process module, which is based on standard CMOS processing. The company’s Nanomech-based activities are focused on the development and qualification of non volatile memory technology which originated at the famous Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University.  We spoke with Mike Beunder, the CEO of Cavendish Kinetics.