Abstracts

Electro-Mechanical

• DC-DC Intelligent Battery Charger - GEM Power LLC (learn more)
• MEMS Ultra Sensitive - SPAWAR (learn more)
• Commercialization of MEMS - SiWave, Inc. (learn more)

GEM Power, LLC

Technology: DC-DC Intelligent Battery Charger

CCAT Award: Market Study and Prototype Development

According to Battery Council International, using today's battery charging technologies, rechargeable batteries generally last only one third of their design lives. This is due primarily to the inability of currently available chargers to fully recharge batteries after each use. The major cause of premature battery failure is due either to chronic overcharge or undercharge. According to the U.S. EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), over two billion used batteries are disposed of into solid waste facilities in the United States each year. The use of recyclable batteries in many devices can help reduce the quantity of batteries disposed.

The Intelligent Battery Charging technology is proposed as a single battery charger for rapidly charging batteries of different chemistries, in as little as 15 minutes, without damaging them and hence enables batteries to achieve their design life, explained John James, President of GEM Power, LLC. GEM Power, a Redlands, CA based business, has developed this technology to enable batteries to achieve their design life, thereby significantly reducing a large quantity of environmentally toxic batteries disposed every year and reduce disposal costs. Eventually, the GEM Power charger will also determine the remaining battery capacity and predict the end of the battery's life prior to actual battery failure. Batteries will be charged faster and safer to the optimum level without manual or user adjustments and without degrading the batteries or shortening their life. The increase in efficiency will lower life cycle costs and improve the effectiveness of the batteries. Using GEM Power chargers, soldiers will be able to conduct their missions while carrying fewer batteries.

GEM Power is developing intelligent charging technology under a Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) research and development contract, explained Monty Dill, GEM Power's CFO. GEM Power anticipates delivering its first government charger to the U.S. Navy in 2004. The charger will be a diagnostic charger that has capabilities to rapid charge lead acid and nickel cadmium medium batteries (5 to 100 ampere hours) and to automatically differentiate and charge several different sizes of lead acid and nickel cadmium medium batteries. Also, in 2004, GEM Power will introduce its first commercial charger which will be a lead acid battery rapid charger for medium sized batteries. In the fourth quarter of 2003, GEM Power began to study additional capabilities of the charger for metal hydride and lithium small batteries (under 5 ampere hour) class. GEM Power intended future plan is to develop battery chargers for 100 ampere hour or greater battery.

GEM Power will improve the ability of various Department of Defense (DoD), Federal and local agencies to respond to Homeland Security, Crisis/Consequence Management and Public Safety needs in the focus areas of First Responder needs and Critical Infrastructure Protection Utilizing its intelligent battery charging technology, GEM Power will apply its technology towards a prototype DC-DC (Direct Current) converter charger that can provide charging from any DC source (mobile, stationary, indigenous), increase portable emergency equipment readiness, and allow a universal charging platform for field equipment used by public safety and military Special Operations personnel. GEM Power will use the Office of Technology Transfer and Commercialization (OTTC) funding for prototype development of this DC-DC application

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Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS USA)

Technology: Ultra-Sensitive Accelerometer

MEMS-based accelerometers presently function along one of the following methods, measurement of charge across a variable capacitor, change in resistance of a stressed piezoresistive material, change in tunneling current across a variable air gap, or change in frequency of a vibrating element. Due to its comparatively high sensitivity, the capacitive approach has been most widely developed and implemented the past 20 years but despite that has not reached a level adequate for precision applications. Moreover, the costs associated with manufacturing and testing even the highest quality MEMS-based accelerometers is prohibitive for many unique and novel applications that could benefit from the technology.

The accelerometer is based on the monolithic integration of a Fabry-Perot interferometer and a photodiode on a semi conducting substrate. The interferometer utilizes two parallel and optically flat mirrors separated by an air gap distanceŚdą. When light of a given wavelength is incident normal to the surface of the mirror and the spacing between the mirrors is an integral multiple of half wavelengths, a resonant condition occurs with corresponding maximum transmission intensity through the interferometer. The photodiode integrated in the silicon substrate under the interferometer collects the transmitted light and converts it to an electric current. If the spacing between the mirrors is altered by a perturbing force, the resonant condition is broken and the transmitted light is attenuated exponentially decreasing the associated current within the photodiode. The change in photo-generated current can therefore be related to a change in displacement and hence change in acceleration.

Contact:

Richard Waters
SSC-SD, code 2876
53560 Hull St.
San Diego, CA 92152-5001
619-553-6404
Fax: 619-553-3892
Richard.waters@navy.mil

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