A multi-scale road map for dry electrode technology from microstructural control to large-scale manufacturing

The International Roadmap for Devices and Systems (IRDS) is an effort initiated by the IEEE Rebooting Computing Future Directions Committee to create a road map for critical technologies that will impact the future of data processing. In addition to supporting computing technologies, these road maps will also influence the development of memory and storage in future consumer products [1], [2]. The IRDS includes a continuation and extension of the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) International Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS). This column discusses work done for the 2017 IRDS road map. The IRDS had workshops to revise the next version of the road map in November 2018.

This paper presents a new philosophy of research and development (R&D). it is combined the mode of third generation R&D management (Philip A. Roussel, Kamal N.Saad and Tamara J. Erickson, 1991) with technology road maping (TRM) (Jonah M. Duckles, and Edward J. Coyle, 2002, Alain Leger, Fausto Giunchilia, Ana V.Zhdanova and Niana Maynard, 2005). Main management system of the third generation R&D management and its functions, advantages and application of TRM of petroleum technology R&D were described in the paper. At the same time, milestone's elements of technology R&D and RTM's construction are discussed. This paper also point out how to keep company business target in accordance with the technology development target through identifying and prioritizing technology investment decisions, and repositioning company technology capabilities. The visions of the future technology scenario planning and translating the TRM to a technology strategy can be put forward. The methodologies, tools and templates of TRM are also presented in the paper, prioritizing technology capability and upgrading and sharing the technology future. Therefore, a chain was established among the technologies, products and services development plans, and linking of technologies to business drivers and strategy targets in order to reduce the risk of R&D of the technology. Finally, the paper proposes formulation of the TRM, and it also emphasizes that the RTM is an excellent management tool for analyzing and prioritizing potential future technology acquisition. At present, this method has been implemented to the R&D management in PetroChina.

Technology roadmaps have already been widely adopted as an important management tool during the past three decades after the invention of the management tool by Motorola in the 1980s. The technology road-mapping processes which can be integrated with firms’ competence sets are very important for strategy definitions. However, how the uncertainties being associated with the costs, time, quality, etc. for technology road mapping were seldom discussed, not to mention how various objectives can be considered at the same time. Thus, this research aims to propose a fuzzy multiple objective programming based competence set expansion technique to resolve the above mentioned technology road-mapping problem. An empirical study based on the road-mapping of novel compressors for air conditioners will be used to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed framework. The well-verified analytic framework can serve as a basis for research and development (R&D) strategy definitions by practitioners.

Technology road mapping has emerged in recent years as a key management tool in formulating the link between technological resources and the exploitation of market opportunities. A powerful aid to strategy formulation and communication, the technique has the major advantage of bringing many functions within a business together around a common plan. Although there is no definitive guide to road mapping practice, the application in many different businesses has revealed a number of generic aspects. A major common factor is that technology road maps are concerned with the introduction of technology change into an organisation. This paper proposes a conceptual model of the factors significant for the successful introduction of technology change. The relevance of this framework to technology road mapping is discussed based on the in-depth experience of developing and implementing TRMs for three large companies. Also discussed briefly are results of questionnaires sent to these three companies to obtain a feedback on their post-implementation experiences.

As per the International Energy Agency (IEA) 2009 report, rapidly growing energy demand in developing countries is projected to double by 2030. After ending the three decades of civil war, the Sri Lankan economy has also shown a robust growth; hence the country has shown a continuous growth in energy demand. In 1995 Sri Lanka met 95% of the total electricity demand using major hydro power plants. But due to the escalating demand for electricity and government policies favouring the coal powered power plants, a completely different power mix exists today. By the end of year 2012, more than 70% of the total electrify requirements of the country was met with fossil based energy sources. Today, as responses to the threats of climate change manifest, following many other nations, Sri Lanka also considered renewable energy in their energy mix. However, the lack of technological capabilities has hindered the development of renewable energy technologies in the Country. The solution to such constrains lies with effective technology transfer and cooperation of renewable energy technologies. Technology Road-mapping and scenarios are two widely used future techniques to support strategic and long-range planning. This paper provides a combined approach of technology road mapping and scenario planning in order to foster the renewable energy technologies of Sri Lanka via effective technology transfer mechanisms. The combined approach consists with six steps, and foresight analysis tools such as literature review, expert’s interviews, STEEPV analysis, and Delphi technique were used along the process. Four scenarios named ‘Land of Republic’, ‘Green Paradise,’ ‘Drowning Island’ and ‘Black Island’ were developed. Out of the four scenarios, ‘Green Paradise’ was considered as the most favourable scenario for Sri Lanka and technology roadmap was developed targeting this scenario. The proposed technology roadmap consists with six steps and the roadmap suggests effective technology transfer mechanism to foster the renewable energy technologies of the country.

يهدف البحث إلى اقتراح عدد من خرائط الطريق التکنولوجية لدور القيادات التعليمية في التحول الرقمي بمرحلة الثانوي العام ببعض الدول العربية. ففي ضوء الرؤى المستقبلية الطموحة لعدد من الدول العربية (2030)، قد تم تحديد مشکلة البحث في السؤال الرئيس التالي: کيف تستطيع القيادات التعليمية تطبيق التحول الرقمي بالمدارس الثانوية العامة في عدد من الدول العربية في ضوء تحديات ضعف المقومات المادية والبشرية اللازمة؟ وفي ضوء طبيعة مشکلة البحث وأهدافه، اتبع البحث المنهج الوصفي التحليلي، وإلى جانب ذلک تم إعداد استبانة لاستطلاع آراء القيادات التعليمي بالمدارس الثانوية العامة بأربع دول عربية وهي: جمهورية مصر العربية، والمملکة العربية السعودية وسلطنة عمان والمملکة الأردنية الهاشمية للتعرف على دور القيادات التعليمية في التحول الرقمي. وفي ضوء نتائج البحث، تم اقتراح بدائل لخارطة طريق تکنولوجية تساعد نظم التعليم بالدول محل الدراسة في إنجاز التحول الرقمي بالمرحلة الثانوية، ويمکن استعراض نبذة عن النماذج المقترحة لخارطة الطريق التکنولوجية فيما يلي: 1-النموذج الاستطلاعي التدريجي لخارطة الطريق التکنولوجية Incremental Piloting Technology Roadmap (TRM)، والذي يعتمد فيه النموذج على الاستطلاع والتجريب على عدد من القطاعات أو المناطق الجغرافية والتي يتم زيادة رقعة تنفيذه بعد تجريبه على نطاق ضيق، ثم يتسع التطبيق وفق شکل انتشار أثر الحجر في الماء Ripple Effect. 2-النموذج البنائي Constructive TRM، والذي يعتمد على المدرسة کوحدة بنائية من خلال نموذج التنفيذ من القاعدة للأعلى Bottom-up approach، والتي تتولى فيه المدرسة قيادة التحول الرقمي في ضوء خطة قومية موحدة، بحيث تتجمع المعلومات والبيانات رقميا من مستوى المدرسة إلى مستويات أعلى على مستوى الإدارة والمديرية ثم على المستوى القومي. 3-النموذج اللامرکزي Decentralized TRM، والذي يعتمد على أن ميزانية التعليم مخصصة للمحافظات أو المناطق التعليمية، فتستطيع کل منطقة تعليمية وضع الخطط الخاصة بها وفق طبيعتها وخصوصيتها والموارد المتاحة لديها وأولويات تطوير التعليم بها. The research aims at proposing several Technology Roadmaps for the educational leaderships’ role in digital transformation at a few selected Arab countries in the light of their ambitious visions (2030). Research problem could be identified in the research main question: how educational leaderships can implement digital transformation at general secondary schools in a few Arab countries given the challenges of inadequate physical and human resources? In the light of the unique nature of research problem and objectives, the research has followed the technology road mapping (TRM) futurist methodology that relied on the outcomes of the descriptive analytical methodology that required formulating a questionnaire directed to secondary school leaderships in four countries: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Jordan to identify the roles of educational leaderships in digital transformation. Guided by the research results, a few technology roadmaps were proposed to help education systems of the countries dealt with in the research implement digital transformation in the optimum form at secondary schools. The proposed technology roadmaps could be summed up in the following: 1-Incremental piloting TRM which relies in its design on experimenting and piloting digital transformation on several narrow-selected sectors and/or geographic locations, and that could be expanded on other sectors and/or geographic locations incrementally in a way that resembles ripple effect. 2-Constructive TRM which depends on school as a construction unit through a bottom-up approach that school leads digital transformation in the light of a unified national plan. All data, learning resources and information are collected from schools’ level to higher administrative levels to local areas and governorates then to the national level. 3-Decentralised TRM which is based on the allocated budget per geographic location where each geographic location can develop its own plan that suits their local resources, needs, priorities and nature of education problems they deal with.

Within this decade, there has been immense effort focused on reducing the cost of energy storage devices. The goal towards energy independence through electrification of automobiles for widespread adoption has greatly incentivized this endeavor. Strategies ranging from novel materials investigation to advanced device manufacturing development span the cost reduction effort. Maxwell Technologies is actively engaged in this global effort from the direction of dry electrode fabrication technology. Maxwell dry electrode technology offers manufacturing cost and performance competitiveness, and novel battery chemistry enablement. This paper provides the initial foundation and validation for the application of dry coated electrode in lithium-ion batteries. Maxwell Technologies is a San Diego based ultracapacitor manufacturer that uses a proprietary liquid-free electrode production process. Advanced process development without the need for solvents has enabled Maxwell’s dry electrode production lines to operate at high throughput using a minimal manufacturing footprint. This unique electrode manufacturing process does not introduce any volatile waste products into the atmosphere or require complex manufacturing plant arrangement. It begins with dry raw materials compounding and maintains its liquid-free state throughout the subsequent processing steps to ultimately produce a robust high-performance ultracapacitor electrode. Since this process produces a dry active material free-standing film, the scrap is collected and reused in the successive processing batches. Maxwell is currently engaged in research and development efforts to expand the application space of its dry electrode process technology to include battery electrode manufacturing. Cell performance using prototype dry coated lithium-ion battery electrodes has been demonstrated under two DOE funded programs. Electrode configuration with various architectures using a wide range of materials can be produced at thicknesses ranging from about 50 microns to about 1 millimeter. In addition to manufacturing flexibility, the cohesion and adhesion properties of electrodes derived from the dry process are superior in the presence of electrolyte at high temperatures compared to those produced using the wet coating technology. This unique electrode process technology offers significant saving in manufacturing cost and helps curb CO2 pollution during the battery electrode manufacturing process. By eliminating the use of any liquids/solvents, and the associated coating and drying complexity inherent in wet processing, the dry electrode process is environmentally friendly, and can be readily installed and commissioned with a much lower start-up capital investment. Thus, dry electrode manufacturing is economically attractive and socially responsible. This paper will provide insight into dry electrode coating technology and its capacity for the enablement of advanced battery chemistries, and cell performance results derived from dry coated lithium-ion battery electrodes.

Most existing technology roadmaps were built based on requirements-pull analyses which were driven by future market needs. The major problem of the roadmapping method is the released technology roadmaps have to be revised frequently with rapid changing technology. The paper presented a new roadmapping process which consists of three stages aiming at resolving the problem. The three stages are preliminary activities, development activities and follow-up activities. Two workgroups of requirements-pull and technology-push adopt different work process for consistent objectives in the second stage. The new roadmapping method can make use of present technology assets like patents and integrate ideas of business experts and technology experts.

Value Driven Technology Road Mapping (VTRM) process integrating decision making and marketing tools: Case of Internet security technologies

Within this decade, there has been immense effort focused on reducing the cost of energy storage devices. The goal towards energy independence through electrification of automobiles for widespread adoption has greatly incentivized this endeavor. Strategies ranging from novel materials investigation to advanced device manufacturing development span the cost reduction effort. Maxwell Technologies is actively engaged in this global effort from the direction of dry electrode fabrication technology. Maxwell dry electrode technology offers manufacturing cost and performance competitiveness, and novel battery chemistry enablement. This paper provides the initial foundation and validation for the application of dry coated electrode in lithium-ion batteries. Maxwell Technologies is a San Diego based ultracapacitor manufacturer that uses a proprietary liquid-free electrode production process. Advanced process development without the need for solvents has enabled Maxwell’s dry electrode production lines to operate at high throughput using a minimal manufacturing footprint. This unique electrode manufacturing process does not introduce any volatile waste products into the atmosphere or require complex manufacturing plant arrangement. It begins with dry raw materials compounding and maintains its liquid-free state throughout the subsequent processing steps to ultimately produce a robust high-performance ultracapacitor electrode. Maxwell is currently engaged in research and development efforts to expand the application space of its dry electrode process technology to include battery electrode manufacturing. Cell performance using prototype dry coated lithium-ion battery electrodes has been demonstrated. Electrode configuration with various architectures using a wide range of materials can be produced at thicknesses ranging from about 50 microns to about 1 millimeter. In addition to manufacturing flexibility, the cohesion and adhesion properties of electrodes derived from the dry process are superior in the presence of electrolyte at high temperatures compared to those produced using the wet coating technology. This unique electrode process technology offers significant saving in manufacturing cost and helps curb CO2 pollution during the battery electrode manufacturing process. By eliminating the use of any liquids/solvents, and the associated coating and drying complexity inherent in wet processing, the dry electrode process is environmentally friendly, and can be readily installed and commissioned with a much lower start-up capital investment. Thus, dry electrode manufacturing is economically attractive and socially responsible. This paper will provide recent progress in high energy dry electrode coating technology and its capacity for the enablement of advanced battery chemistries, and cell performance results derived from dry coated lithium-ion battery electrodes.

The electric vehicle (EV) market has grown very rapidly to meet the demand for net-zero carbon emissions in the transportation sector. The rapid growth of EVs is primarily attributed to the technological advances in lithium-ion batteries, making them the most promising energy storage devices due to their outstanding electrochemical performance. In recent years, the lithium-ion battery industry has made attempts to achieve price and driving range parity between electric vehicles and internal combustion vehicles. Significant efforts have been devoted to developing electrode processes as well as active materials in order to achieve low-cost and high-energy-density lithium-ion batteries. Particularly, the adoption of thick film electrodes is an effective way to increase both energy density and cost efficiency by reducing the amount of inactive materials, such as current collectors, separators, and cell components. In this presentation, we introduce the dry electrode technology to achieve ultra-thick film electrode. Dry electrode technology has the potential to provide a breakthrough in achieving higher loading levels and electrode densities. Moreover, the distribution of binders in dry electrodes does not impede lithium-ion transport, unlike wet electrode binders such as PVdF. Due to these synergistic effects, dry electrode-based electrodes have achieved ultra-high loading levels with lower resistance compared to wet-based electrodes. Additionally, dry electrode technology on the anode side has limitations due to the low low lowest unoccupied molecular orbital level (LUMO) level of the PTFE binder, resulting in side reaction during lithiation. This phenomenon significantly worsens battery performance, affecting factors such as initial Coulombic efficiency and cycle life. We suggest an effective strategy to mitigate the side reactions of dry-electrode technology.

You may wonder what a technology road map is and what purpose it would have. A technology road map is a plan to meet the short- and long-term goals with specific technology. The major benefits of a technology road map would be to 1) help funding agencies reaching a consensus on the set of future needs and the required technologies to meet them 2) devise a mechanism in forecasting technology development 3) develop a framework for planning and coordinating the technology development 4) inform the general public and society about where the robotics and automation is heading.

For the past five years, Westinghouse Electric Company, PLC, has made ever increasing use of Technology Road Mapping, to direct company development efforts to achieve maximum benefits for our customers and ourselves. Comprised of business units in Nuclear Fuels, Nuclear Services and Nuclear Power Plants, including domestic and international business segments, Westinghouse must pay particular attention to coordinating development to satisfy the diverse needs of our growing international customer base. We must develop products which both benefit the individual Business Unit customer base, and which create synergy to produce the best possible offerings to the broader marketplace. The knowledge we gain through customer contacts and direct customer participation provides the basis from which we develop the Technology Road Map. This Road Map development process can be compared to painting a picture, where the background colors and features correspond to drivers related to the Customer and the prevailing features of the market environment. The subsequent layers of detail include broad Technical Objectives and then specific Technical Goals which will support achieving those Objectives. The process is described in detail, and examples are provided.

The quality of a company's strategic planning is a key factor influencing its competitiveness and development prospects. We will demonstrate how an appropriate choice of user inter¬faces, knowledge acquisition tools and analytic decision support methods can stimulate the creativity of the strategic planners taking part in technological road mapping. With strategic planning formalized as a multicriteria decision problem, the usual process of debating and brainstorming is better focused on reaching a consensus solution in an efficient way. An intelligent road mapping support tool and publicly available technological foresight results assure a high quality of data gathering and interaction of experts with stakeholders. Real options are used to evaluate the opportunities, threats, challenges, and flexibility during the planning period. The above approach has been implemented as an intranet application and used to apply information technology (IT) foresight outcomes to establish IT investment plans in innovative companies that develop new products and launch them on the market.

The importance of linking efficiently the outputs of R&D processes with the business world has become evident. Researchers and practitioners have developed tools to help build business from a starting-point (business-idea) to the description of elements that make the business possible. The Business Model Canvas (BMC) identifies the essential parts of a business; it's applicability and simplicity has given it greater acceptance and dissemination. Furthermore, the Technology Roadmap (TRM) is presented as a valuable tool to visualize the relationships over time among market, technology and product strategies; TRM allows decision makers to identify gaps between the current and the future business strategy. BMC and TRMs have been used independently of each other; BMC allows the modeling of value proposition and TRM allows the planning of the future strategy, but if used together, their synergy helps to construct the value generation and value delivery through time. This paper presents a methodology and an application of the integration of these tools -BMC and TRM-to provide a combined business model and technology roadmap for a business-idea or a new product concept, doing it in a single structured process.