From Solar Industry, December 2010: "PV manufacturers have increased production volumes, opened new production lines and new factories in 2010, to meet the strong global demand.  For example, Greg Sheppard, chief research officer at iSuppli Corp., says that PV manufacturers have announced 11.1 GW in new crystalline silicon (C-Si) capacity in 2010 and 8.4 GW in 2011.    However, increased production demand does not simply translate directly into increased equipment purchases.   Other factors affecting equipment purchase plans are how much money a company is willing to spend, customer demand contracts over next few years, forecasted market prices and company cost structures and gross-margin requirements.  Finley Colville, senior analyst at Solarbuzz, says, "What you typically see is that people will add 50 MW or 100 MW.  The idea of a gigawatt being added at once by anyone doesn't happen in practice.  The economy of scale kicking in hasn't really happened yet, so this 10 GW is really 30 MW to 50 MW being added by individual companies at any given time."
 

"Companies are identifying and eliminating process bottlenecks in their entire production process. A popular de-bottlenecking option is adding new automated equipment frequently with robotics which includes intangible cost of relinquishing some degree of control.  Equipment expenditures are also linked to factory location.  For example, China can subsidize a lot things with people, so they spend less on automation than U.S. and Europe.  As China's share of the PV module manufacturing market grows, the number of domestic equipment suppliers offering less expensive products than U.S. and European manufacturers is growing.  The Chinese suppliers are currently focused on their internal Chinese cell and module manufacturers."

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From Photonics.com, December 2010, By Marie Freebody: "The global pharmaceutical market is worth $800 billion annually, and approximately 10 percent of this is thought to be counterfeit. Most drug manufacturers employ printed codes or serial numbers, bar codes or hologram stickers on packaging to authenticate their products. But a new optically read microtag that can be applied directly to the surface of the tablet or capsule could provide a more robust solution to combat counterfeiters."

"TruTag Technologies has developed an edible microtag that reflects a unique spectral light signature that can be measured using a simple, low-cost spectrometer-based optical reader. This means that tablets can be verified through clear packaging without having to be removed from their blister packs.  The technology, although extremely well suited to the pharmaceutical and supplements industry, also is scalable to applications in a wide variety of markets, including semiconductors, consumer electronics, aircraft parts, medical devices, food and wine, textiles and luxury goods.  Because the tags are made from clear, 100 percent silicon dioxide, which has been safely used as an ingredient in food and drugs for decades, they are both edible and biologically inert. The spectral code is etched into a silicon wafer from which microtags are created, and it is converted to silicon dioxide by heat. The resultant microtags, called TruTags, can be associated with information such as product strength, lot number, expiration date, authorized country of sale and authorized customer."

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Photonics.com: http://www.photonics.com/Article.aspx?AID=45203

From Chemical and Engineering News: Electrochemical cells offer key to fully electrified motor vehicles, but production is years away.   Breakthroughs in storage batteries are needed to achieve the practical size and weight and provide enough energy to drive at least a few hundred miles.   Metal-air batteries, especially ones based on lithium, are a main area of research.  "Metal-air batteries get their name from reactants that provide energy by undergoing electrochemical reactions. In zinc-air cells, for example, energy is released by oxidizing zinc (which is held within the battery case) with oxygen from the air. Insofar as the oxidizer is not stored in the battery but supplied continuously from an external source-air-these kinds of batteries are similar to fuel cells, in which neither the oxidizer nor the fuel is packaged inside the cell."
 

"The metal-airbattery concept isn't new. Non-rechargeable Zn-air button-cell hearing-aid batteries can be found in drugstores everywhere. In contrast, rechargeable metal-air batteries, and in particular Li-air batteries, remain in the research phase but continue to attract new investigators because of the promise these batteries hold.  This article discusses the advantages, issues and on-going  research in Li-air batteries."

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Image: Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters

 From IEEE.org, December 7 2010, By Neil Savage: "Researchers at North Carolina State University have demonstrated new "soft" electronic components, built from liquid metals and hydrogels. The scientists hope that such components-quasi-liquid diodes and memristors -will work better than traditional electronics to interface with wet squishy things, such as the human brain."

"Ju-Hee So, a graduate student in chemistry at NC State, described a quasi-liquid diode at the fall meeting of the Materials Research Society in Boston last week. The device's electrodes are made of an alloy-75 percent gallium and 25 percent indium-that is highly conductive and liquid at room temperature. The electrode is housed within a plastic casing. Sandwiched between the electrodes are two films made of agarose, a hydrogel commonly used in biochemistry that is more than 90 percent water by weight. Each film is doped with electrolytes; one contains polyacrylic acid (PAA), and the other holds polyethyleneimine (PEI), which is a base."

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