AN ULTRA-HIGH-DENSITY CAPACITOR TO MAKE POSSIBLE A POWER SUPPLY ON A CHIP

THIS PROPOSAL DESCRIBES AN INNOVATIVE CONCEPT FOR ELECTRONIC CAPACITORS THAT ALLOWS ENERGY STORAGE DENSITIES 1,000 TO 100,000 TIMES THOSE OF STATE-OF-THE-ART CAPACITORS. SUCH DENSITIES, USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH MICROELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGIES, WOULD ALLOW COMPLETE POWER SUPPLIES TO BE CONTAINED ON INTEGRATED-CIRCUIT CHIPS. THIS, IN TURN, WOULD ALLOW UNPRECEDENTED FLEXIBILITY AND SAVINGS IN CIRCUIT DESIGN AND LAYOUT BY PERMITTING THE USE OF DISTRIBUTED POWER SUPPLIES AND SELECTIVE REGULATION. WITH THIS INNOVATION, CIRCUIT BOARDS AND LARGE-SCALE INTEGRATED CIRCUITS COULD CARRY THEIR OWN POWER SUPPLIES, THUS FREEING THEM FROM THE PRESENTLY-REQUIRED PROXIMITY TO CENTRAL POWER SUPPLIES AND ALLOWING COMPLETE FREEDOM OF LOCATION. IN FACT, THE CENTRAL POWER SUPPLY WOULD COMPLETELY CEASE TO EXIST FOR MANY APPLICATIONS. PROTOTYPE CAPACITORS THIS EXCITING CONCEPT HAVE ALREADY BEEN PRODUCED IN AQUEOUS TECHNOLOGY, WHICH, OF COURSE, IS NOT CURRENTLY APPLICABLE TO INTEGRATED-CIRCUIT USES. HOWEVER, THE CONCEPT YIELDS TO SOLID-STATE TECHNOLOGY, WHICH CAN BE USED FOR SUCH APPLICATIONS. THE RESEARCH PROGRAM DESCRIBED HERE HAS AS ITS GOAL THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE FEASIBILITY OF USING SOLID-STATE TECHNOLOGY IN THE NEW CONCEPT. SEVERAL CANDIDATE SYSTEMS ARE PROPOSED WHICH HAVETHE POTENTIAL FOR SATISFYING THE REQUIREMENTS, AND THESE ARE TO BE TESTED TO DETERMINE THEIR CHARACTERISTICS. THE RESULT OF THIS PHASE I EFFORT WILL DETERMINE THE DETAILS OF THE PROGRAM TO BE FOLLOWED IN PHASE II FOR THE PRODUCTION OF PROTOTYPES OF TRUE SOLID-STATE CAPACITORS AND CHIPAND IC-SCALE POWER SUPPLIES.