Asahi Glass Develops Electric Double-Layer Capacitor

Asahi Glass Co. Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan) announced the development of a new electric double-layer capacitor with an improved energy density of nearly triple that of conventional products. The new capacitor has a high capacitance density of 13F/cc per cell volume and a high operating voltage of 3V. The features enable the new capacitor to provide a high energy density of 10Wh/l at a high output range of 1,000W/l. With this development, the capacitor will find ready applications in industrial fields such as in the automotive industry.

In collaboration with ELNA Co. Ltd., an affiliated manufacturer of capacitors, Asahi Glass started development of an electric double-layer capacitor in 1985. The collaboration yielded the successful development of a small, coin-shaped capacitor used primarily for the backup of IC memories and mass-production commenced at ELNA in 1988. The current requirement for automobile application is a high-output from a small-sized power source, so it is expected that there will now be considerable demand for use in hybrid cars and fuel cell cars.