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Less neodymium, more cerium

Engineers at the Korea Institute of Materials Science have developed a process for producing high-performance and cost-effective magnets for high-speed electric motors using cerium to reduce the amount of neodymium (writes Nick Flaherty). Cerium is an abundant rare earth element, while neodymium is in increasingly short supply, driving up prices. The process can reduce the […]

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Tunnel devices come into the light

Murata has launched its first series of high-performance coreless current sensors using tunnel magneto-resistive (TMR) elements (writes Nick Flaherty). The MRD series of open-loop current sensors integrates high-performance TMR elements. These use a magneto-resistive effect that occurs in a magnetic tunnel junction composed of two ferromagnets separated by a thin insulator. The insulator, typically a […]

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Reference design aimed at e-bikes

Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) has developed an inverter reference design based around an integrated gallium nitride (GaN) chip that reduces the size of powertrains in electric bikes (writes Nick Flaherty). The design, for a 1.5 kW three phase brushless DC motor drive inverter, uses the EPC23101 eGaN chip. This has an embedded gate driver function […]

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Gate driver designs for heavy EVs

Power Integrations (PI) has developed two versions of its gate driver board that is suitable for powertrain designs in heavy equipment such as trucks, buses, and agricultural and construction equipment (writes Nick Flaherty). The Scale EV gate driver boards are designed to fit on top of Infineon’s EconoDual half-bridge modules in the same footprint. The […]

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Going large offers longer range

Advanced Cell Engineering (ACE) has filed a patent application for a very large format (VLF) battery cell (writes Nick Flaherty). The filing, in the U,S is part of its Project Magnus to develop a highly efficient, 1 m cell-to-pack prismatic cell. It is ACE’s fourth patent application in the past 6 months. Rather than using thousands […]

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System-level approach to NVH models

Complex interactions between electric powertrain components provide significant challenges in accurately predicting the noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) performance of a design when using high level system-level models (writes Nick Flaherty). The models can help reduce the cost and development time, but the underlying interaction of the component-level simulations needs to be understood to achieve […]

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Super-fast silicon cell charging

BATTERY CHARGING Enovix has demonstrated 5 minute charging of its prototype silicon battery cells for EVs (writes Nick Flaherty). Tests on the 0.27 Ah cells demonstrate charging from 0 to 80% charge in 5.2 minutes, and achieve a greater than 98% charge capacity in under 10 minutes. The cell uses a 100% silicon anode with […]

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Rover will offer mission flexibility

Venturi Astrolab has developed an electric lunar rover with a flexible payload architecture to support a range of regular missions for astronauts (writes Nick Flaherty). The company plans to offer a fleet of these Flexible Logistics and Exploration (FLEX) rovers to support a sustained human presence on the Moon and Mars. The FLEX’s four-wheel crab […]

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Wax works well for conducting heat

Researchers in the US and China have developed an economic but efficient battery thermal management strategy using paraffin wax (writes Nick Flaherty). The 3D, interconnected, thermally conductive boron nitride network greatly improves thermal conductivity compared to random distribution. “We designed a 3D network of boron nitride, and systematically studied its effect on the thermal management […]

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SABIC cube cells pack more energy

Engineers at materials firm SABIC have patented a design for a battery pack using cuboidal cells (writes Nick Flaherty). The cells are inserted into a structural backbone made from a thermoplastic, and could increase battery pack energy density by 20% or more, with 10% more cells compared to a pack using cylindrical cells , along with […]