Tantalum, Titanates, and Silicon
In January 2000, a kilogram of tantalum cost $65. By the end of the year it was $550; triple the price of silver. (It has dropped back to the $60 range today.) What caused the spike? Surging sales of cell phones.
Packing Power
“It’s a great company,” one analyst told us. “Great people. String revenues. Nice cash position. A gold-plated customer list.: The company’s only problem, he volunteered, is that it’s “not a technology play.” Packaging semiconductors “isn’t rocket science,” so investors don’t get excited.
Lithium Batteries for the Silicon Body
A miniature brushless DC motor, built by Danaher’s Kollmorgen (DHR) (Digital Movers, February 2002), runs the 10,000 rpm pump in the AbioCor artificial heart. An ultra-high-energy-density lithium battery, implanted inside the heart itself, supples about 30 minutes of primary power to the motor.
Digital Movers
Electronic motion control brings quantum leaps in flexibility, precision, efficiency, and reliability to applications as diverse as robots, wheelchairs, lift trucks, and packaging machines.
Infrared Imaging: Sense Out of Chaos
Infrared (IR) sensors festoon soldiers helmets, hang limpet-like on Apache and Pavelow helicopters, and are integral to M1 tanks and their battlefield kin.
X-Ray Vision
How do you “see” molecules? The molecules in plastic explosives? Or nerve gas? Or cocaine? Or Anthrax DNA? A dog’s nose is pretty good at this form of vision, which is why canines are showing up a lot in places like airports these days.