MAINSTREAM ENGINEERING CORP — Department of Defense STTR Phase I: DMEA21A-001

Description

Due to recent advances in the field of microelectronics, there is an increasing demand for micro-sized energy storage devices that are capable of being incorporated into and provide energy for MEMS devices. In order to continue to enable this technological growth, and the benefits that stem from it, the storage density of electrical energy must also continually be improved, especially with respect to “on-chip” storage for micro-sensors, pumps, valves, switches, and others. Supercapacitors are energy storage devices that are capable of maintaining the high-power density achievable with electrostatic capacitors while having higher energy density. They therefore have fast frequency response times but are capable of providing power for longer periods of time. Though their energy density is still much lower than that of a battery, their cycle life is far greater.Our supercapacitor electrode technology can provide state-of-the-art performance due to our novel and highly versatile fabrication method. We’ve previously shown several methods to fabricate micro-supercapacitors in a variety of on-chip configurations. The following proposal highlights our novel ultra-high surface area electrodes manufactured from a highly scalable and low-cost process. We currently project their performance metrics to be 7x and 2x higher in energy and power density, respectively.