Technology Newroundup, Next Gen Wifi, Laser Fusion, Infrared solar power

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1. Several startups take Wifi to the next level:

Amimon WHDI – Wireless Home Digital Interface provides a high-quality, uncompressed wireless link which can support delivery of equivalent video data rates of up to 3Gbps (including uncompressed 1080p) in a 40MHz channel in the 5GHz unlicensed band.

The Quantenna High Speed (QHS) family of chipsets pioneers a new level of ultra reliability for delivering high-definition (HD) multimedia content over wireless networks. With its advanced architecture – which includes vector mesh routing, two or four concurrent bands and throughput link rates in excess of 1 Gbps.

PC World has some more information about Quentanna’s merging a mesh of wifi nodes around a house to get full wifi coverage.

Celano said its switched MIMO approach uses up to eight antennas and beam forming to carry up to four high definition video streams across 50 meters and penetrate multiple walls

2. The European research project, called HiPER (High Power laser for Energy Research), has been kicked off. The ‘proof of principle’ of laser fusion is anticipated in the next few years based on two large-scale lasers currently nearing completion in the USA and France.

3. CIP Technologies, University of Oxford (Oxford, England) and Wafer Technology Ltd. (Bucks, England), and with partial funding from the UK Technology Strategy Board and EPSRC, have successfully completed a three-year collaborative research project. It has delivered first generation single-junction cells with energy conversion efficiencies up to 12% for thermo-photovoltaic (TPV) cells. This compares to 9% from existing, commercially available devices.

Thermo-photovoltaics are similar to solar cells, but operate at infrared rather than visible wavelengths, generating electricity directly from heat. They have applications in waste-heat recovery from industrial plants such as blast furnaces, combined heat and power (CHP) generation, and domestic boilers, as well as silent mobile power generation.

The consortium is now working on a second-generation cell design with a more complex, multi-layer construction that will improve infrared capture even further. This is expected to extend energy conversion efficiencies to over 15%, significantly widening the range of viable applications for the technology.