Samsung - Page 2

XG Sciences announced that Samsung Ventures placed a strategic investment in the company. XGS did not disclose the terms of the investment, but they said that it will be used to "fund additional research and development of the company’s advanced materials".

XG Sciences also plans to formalize their development work with Samsung SDI (the world's largest Li-Ion battery maker) in a joint development program aimed at next-generation batteries for consumer electronics and other devices.

The Korean Intellectual Property Office posted some interesting figures today. They report that Korean companies are securing essential patents related to the commercialization of graphene - and several companies are making inroads into graphene production and manufacturing transparent graphene-based displays.

Between 2005 and June 2013 a total of 2,921 graphene-related patents have been applied for in Korea, and the rate is accelerating quickly. 93% of those patents have been applied for by Korean individuals and organizations.

South Korea is planning to spend around 47 billion won ($40 million) in the next six years on graphene technologies. The Korean government (or specifically the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, MOTIE) wants to help local companies to commercialize graphene, and more than half of the investments will be given to small businesses.

Korea is ranking third in the world by number of graphene patents. Samsung is the company that holds the largest amount of graphene patents in the world, while Korea's Sungkyunkwan University is the world's leading research institute (if we rank by graphene patents, again).

Graphene Laboratories recently signed a two-year strategic alliance agreement with Canada's Lomiko Metals, the owner of several resource properties containing high-grade graphite. Graphite Investor News posted an interesting interview with Lomiko Metals' CEO, A. Paul Gill.

Mr. Gill says that he sees a "huge market" for graphene, as billions of dollars have already been spent on research and development. Gill says that Graphene Labs alone have sold graphene products to over 4,000 customers, including Ford, Sony, Samsung, LG, the US Army and NASA.

Researchers from Spain's UPC and Georgia Tech have been granted $120,000 from Samsung to develop graphene based micrometer-scale highs-peed short-distance antennas. This project (called Graphene-Enabled Wireless Communication, or GEWC). These antennas could radiate electromagnetic waves in the terahertz band and would allow for high-speed information transmission. These antennas will be a thousand times smaller than what can be made with current technology.

The first application will probably be high-speed communication inside a single device - for example between the CPU and the memory, or between cores in multi-core processors. In fact the researchers say that this technology could lead to processor with thousands of "sub processors".

UK patent consultancy CambridgeIP researched graphene patents and they say that the UK may be falling behind in the graphene race. CambridgeIP identified 7,351 graphene patents (and patent applications), and the leading countries by graphene patents are china (2,204), US (1,754) and Korea (1,160). The UK has only 54 graphene patent applications. Back in February the UK government announced a £50 million graphene drive, which aims to bring the country back to the forefront of graphene research.

The leading research institutes (by patents) are Sungkyunkwan University (Korea, 134), Zhejiang University (China, 97), Tsinghua University (China, 92), Rice University (US, 56), MIT (US, 34) and finally Manchester University (16).

Researchers from Samsung's Advanced Institute of Technology have developed a new graphene-silicon Schottky barrier that enables graphene to switch electric current on and off. The researchers explored potential logic device applications based on this technology.

According to Konstantin Sergeyevich Novoselov (the 2010 Nobel Physics Prize winner), Samsung managed to make a 40-inch diagonal (102 cm) Graphene sheet. Back in June 2010 it was reported that Samsung made a 30-inch sheet, and Konstantin says he has a sample of this sheet and he's using it for experiments.

Researchers at Samsung and Sungkyunkwan University in Korea have produced a large layer of pure graphene - as large as a TV panel. The 30" sheet was produced using a roll-to-roll printing process, and the Graphene was disposed on a polyester sheet.

Such large Graphene can be used in flat panel displays.

In a recent technology forum, Samsung highlighted several new technologies. One of them is Graphene. It's not clear what Samsung are doing exactly, but they are obviously interested in this new and exciting material...