Point to Point

Cooling up

Thermal management is one of the key areas of innovation and development in the electronics industry, with one of the main catalysts being inadequate technology and power cycling in overheated laptops. That’s why it makes perfect sense that microscale thermal provider Nextreme Thermal Solutions (Durham, NC) recently announced that it raised $13 million in Series B funding.

The funding will be used to ramp the company’s products into full production for 2009 to meet demands from the photonics and military markets, and then focus on products for the computing, consumer, and mobile markets.

Solar cells made easier

As technologists scramble to solve the latest energy crisis, photovoltaic technology is one of the areas getting more and more attention. It’s costly though, and some big companies are investing a lot of time into making the manufacturing process more efficient (Ahem! less costly). To that end, DuPont recently announced a proprietary technology for the production backsheet containing the company’s Tedlar polyvinyl fluoride (PVF) polymer in a single step, and has signed a licensing agreement with Toppan Printing Co. (Tokyo, Japan) to commercialize backsheet for photovoltaic modules. Commercialization of the new backsheet product using this technology is expected in 2010.