The implementation of cost-effective and reliable energy storage solutions, such as redox flow batteries, is often hindered by the complexity and expense of accurately monitoring their state of charge (SOC) and state of health (SOH). To address this, a novel approach using low-cost management systems and methods has been developed for electrochemical cells based on viologen, particularly pyridinium redox flow batteries. This innovation centers on pH signaling and regulation to enable real-time SOC and SOH monitoring. The viologen species' electrochemical processes naturally induce localized pH changes, and by monitoring and regulating the pH within the cell, researchers can obtain immediate, actionable data on the battery's operating condition. This pH-based system offers a simple, integrated, and economical alternative to conventional, often more complex, monitoring techniques.

A clean, efficient process to produce high-quality graphene thin films from natural gas for advanced electronics and energy applications.

High-conversion-ratio power converters used in compact Point-of-Load (PoL) applications, such as data centers or portable electronics, often face the challenge of large size and weight due to the necessary energy-storage components, particularly flying capacitors, while also struggling with switching losses that reduce efficiency. This innovation, developed by UC Berkeley researchers, addresses these issues with a novel regulating hybrid switched-capacitor (HSC) power converter topology referred to as a "Dual Inductor Switching Bus Converter" (DISB converter). The DISB converter combines an initial 2:1 switched-capacitor conversion stage with a Symmetric Dual-Inductor Hybrid (SDIH) conversion stage, capitalizing on the benefits of both. The initial 2:1 voltage reduction significantly reduces the overall volume and weight of the flying capacitors, while the SDIH stage contributes a reduced component count and an excellent switch stress figure of merit. Crucially, a proposed auxiliary circuit block enables near-zero-voltage conditions (partial soft-switching) within the initial 2:1 stage, which significantly improves the converter's overall efficiency.

Flying Capacitor Multilevel Converters (FCMLCs) are widely used in high-power applications, but they present significant control challenges, particularly in maintaining stable and balanced voltages across the numerous flying capacitors while achieving continuous and fast output voltage regulation. This innovation, developed by UC Berkeley researchers, discloses a novel current-programmed modulator with smooth bin transitions that inherently addresses these challenges. The modulator achieves continuous full-range output voltage regulation and, critically, fast flying-capacitor voltage-balancing dynamics . By programming the current and ensuring smooth transitions between the modulator's operational bins, the technology overcomes the limitations of traditional control methods, resulting in a more reliable, efficient, and robust converter topology suitable for demanding high-power applications.

This technology introduces a fast and low-cost method suitable for manufacturing ultra-long carbon nanotubes using water-soluble catalysts and standard optical lithography. Further, it also ensures vertical alignment of electrodes, a crucial component in electronic devices.

A revolutionary method for synthesizing nanotubes that eliminates common impurities and defects, enabling faster production.

An electrolyte containing a compound with a unique molecular structure is disclosed for use in symmetric, air-tolerant and membraneless all-organic flow batteries. The innovation addresses challenges in large-scale energy storage, offering a safer and more efficient alternative to conventional batteries that rely on metal-based active materials, which can be toxic or have limited availability. The novel technology, developed by researchers at UC Berkeley, features a single active compound in the electrolyte that functions as both the anolyte and catholyte, eliminating the need for a costly and failure-prone membrane. This design simplifies the battery's architecture, improves its resilience to air exposure, and enhances its overall efficiency and longevity.

Urban neighborhoods face increasing energy vulnerability due to power grid disruptions and unequal access to renewable energy. The SolarShare framework, developed by UC Berkeley researchers, addresses this by providing a community-centered approach to enhance urban energy resilience through decentralized renewable energy networks. SolarShare facilitates optimized energy sharing networks, leading to a significant increase in renewable energy accessibility and cost reduction, while demonstrably strengthening community resilience against power disruptions, offering a highly adaptable and scalable solution superior to traditional centralized or less-optimized decentralized systems.

Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER) is crucial for various renewable energy applications, but current electrocatalysts often face issues with stability, efficiency, and cost. This invention addresses these challenges by introducing a novel method for synthesizing robust oxygen evolution electrocatalysts. The technology, developed by UC Berkeley researchers, utilizes calixarene-templated iridium compositions. This approach yields highly stable and efficient electrocatalysts, offering significant advantages over traditional iridium-based catalysts. Specifically, this innovation provides superior performance and durability, making it a valuable tool for energy systems like electrolyzers and fuel cells.

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Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed a technology that introduces an alternative topology for Fibonacci switched-capacitor converters that significantly reduces switch losses and improves efficiency.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed a technology that introduces new electrolyte compositions that significantly enhance the stability and efficiency of non-aqueous flow batteries.

       Spectral machine vision collects both the spectral and spatial dependence (x,y,λ) of incident light, containing potentially useful information such as chemical composition or micro/nanoscale structure.  However, analyzing the dense 3D hypercubes of information produced by hyperspectral and multispectral imaging causes a data bottleneck and demands tradeoffs in spatial/spectral information, frame rate, and power efficiency. Furthermore, real-time applications like precision agriculture, rescue operations, and battlefields have shifting, unpredictable environments that are challenging for spectroscopy. A spectral imaging detector that can analyze raw data and learn tasks in-situ, rather than sending data out for post-processing, would overcome challenges. No intelligent device that can automatically learn complex spectral recognition tasks has been realized.       UC Berkeley researchers have met this opportunity by developing a novel photodetector capable of learning to perform machine learning analysis and provide ultimate answers in the readout photocurrent. The photodetector automatically learns from example objects to identify new samples. Devices have been experimentally built in both visible and mid-infrared (MIR) bands to perform intelligent tasks from semiconductor wafer metrology to chemometrics. Further calculations indicate 1,000x lower power consumption and 100x higher speed than existing solutions when implemented for hyperspectral imaging analysis, defining a new intelligent photodetection paradigm with intriguing possibilities.

      Microwave impedance microscopy (MIM) is an emerging scanning probe technique that enables non-contact, nanoscale measurement of local complex permittivity. By integrating an ultrasensitive, phase-resolved microwave sensor with a near-field probe, MIM has made significant contributions to diverse fundamental and applied fields. These include strongly correlated and topological materials, two-dimensional and biological systems, as well as semiconductor, acoustic, and MEMS devices. Concurrently, notable progress has been made in refining the MIM technique itself and broadening its capabilities. However, existing literature has focused exclusively on linear MIM based on homodyne architectures, where reflected or transmitted microwave is demodulated and detected at the incident frequency. As such, linear MIM lacks the ability to probe local electrical nonlinearity, which is widely present, for example, in dielectrics, semiconductors, and superconductors. Elucidating such nonlinearity with nanoscale spatial resolution would provide critical insights into semiconductor processing and diagnostics as well as fundamental phenomena like local symmetry breaking and phase separation.       To address this shortcoming, UC Berkeley researchers have introduced a novel methodology and apparatus for performing multi-harmonic MIM to locally probe electrical nonlinearities at the nanoscale. The technique achieves unprecedented spatial and spectral resolution in characterizing complex materials. It encompasses both hardware configurations enabling multi-harmonic data acquisition and the theoretical and calibration protocols to transform raw signals into accurate measures of intrinsic nonlinear permittivity and conductivity. The advance extends existing linear MIM into the nonlinear domain, providing a powerful, versatile, and minimally invasive tool for semiconductor diagnostics, materials research, and device development.

This invention introduces a groundbreaking liquid electrolyte for fluoride-ion batteries, offering high electrochemical stability, superior ionic conductivity, and excellent thermal stability.

      Effective thermal management remains a critical challenge in designing and operating next-generation electronics, data centers, and energy systems. Devices are steadily shrinking and handling increased power densities. Traditional cooling strategies, such as heat sinks and immersive cooling systems, fall short in delivering the targeted, localized cooling needed to prevent or address thermal hotspots. Current solutions for localized hotspot cooling require active, energy-intensive methods like pumping of coolants and complex thermal architecture design.       To overcome these challenges, UC Berkeley researchers present a transformative passive method for localized, autonomous cooling of hotspots. The cooling system delivers effective, localized cooling across various device surfaces and geometries, including those geometries wherein cooling media must move against gravity. The benefits of the present system will be appreciated for computer chip and other electronics cooling, microgravity applications, battery thermal management. Beyond thermal management, the underlying system may also open novel avenues in fluid manipulation and energy harvesting.

There is a need for robust and reliable electrochemical oxygen sensing, particularly in ambient environments. This innovation, developed by UC Berkeley researchers, addresses this opportunity by providing electrochemical sensors and methods for oxygen sensing using zinc-air battery chemistry. The sensor is a compact electrochemical cell that utilizes an anode (comprising a substrate and a current collector), a cathode (comprising a gas permeable substrate and a current collector), and a separator containing an electrolyte positioned between them. An electronic unit electrically couples the anode and cathode and is configured to receive electrical signals indicative of the oxygen level in the ambient environment. This system offers a novel, potentially cost-effective and efficient approach to oxygen measurement compared to conventional sensing technologies.

This technology introduces a solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) that enhances the performance and safety of lithium-ion and lithium-metal-anode batteries.

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      Miniaturization and performance of power electronics is fundamentally limited by magnetic components, whose power densities inherently reduce at small scales. Piezoelectric resonators (PRs), which store energy in the mechanical compliance and inertia of a piezoelectric material, offer various advantages for power conversion including high quality factors, planar form factors, opportunity for batch fabrication, and potential for integration. Contrary to magnetic components, PRs have increased power handling densities at small scales. Noteworthy advancements have been made in magnetic-less, PR-based power converter designs, demonstrating significant achievements in both power density (up to 5.7 kW/cm3) and efficiency (up to >99%). However, while PRs are promising alternative passive components, they cannot be used as drag-and-drop replacements for magnetics; achieving high performance in a PR-based converter requires complicated control of multi-stage switching sequences. A need exists for more practical ways to leverage piezoelectrics in power conversion without such added complexity.      To address this challenge, UC Berkeley researchers have developed a piezoelectric component that may be leveraged to directly emulate the dynamics of a magnetic component. The “active inductor” can serve as a drag-and-drop replacement for bulky magnetic inductors in power converters. Power density and efficiency of underlying piezoelectrics are preserved while the design complexity associated with piezoelectric-based power converters is simplified. Detailed models and control strategies for the piezoelectric-based active inductors have been developed and usage demonstrated in a classic buck converter. The active inductor is further validated with closed-loop simulation results and open-loop experimental results, confirming its inductor-like behavior.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed a green technology designed for the efficient storage and discharge of heat energy sourced from intermittent green energy supplies.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis, have developed an improved redox flow battery (RFB) for intermittent renewable energy applications such as wind, solar, and tidal. The device provides high-density energy storage and transfer without losing capacity over time and frequent replacement as with traditional lithium batteries.

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