In a distant time now long ago I used to postulate on Stanford Ovshinsky and his breakthrough discoveries regarding 3rd Wave computing. I often wondered aloud and to myself if he/we would ever witness those mindful meanderings. Witness!
ECD, Ovshinsky announce revolution in electronics: "This is something that's going to change the world. We wanted you to know about it." With those words, Stanford R. Ovshinsky, president and chief scientist at Energy Conversion Devices Inc. closed a 90-minute press conference and company tour disclosing a new electronic device they said would lead to significantly faster, cheaper and more versatile computing.
Called the Ovonic Quantum Control, the device operates something like the transistor that fueled the first electronics revolution. However, it has the capacity to carry much higher currents of electricity, meaning its operations will be faster. It's also cheaper and easier to manufacture and doesn't require a silicon substrate. The device is also far smaller than a transistor, and produces less heat. It is also capable of more flexible operations than transistors, meaning computers can move beyond ones and zeros. The size and flexibility advantages also mean much greater storage density -- for example, storage media that can have 16 states of storage between simply "on" and "off."
Ovshinsky disclosed the discovery last month at a European scientific conference. Tuesday's event at ECD headquarters in Rochester Hills was the first United States disclosure. Like most of the inventions in Ovshinsky's 50-year career, this one involves using small electric currents to create rapid changes between disordered states and crystalline states in elements of group VI of the periodic table, also known as calcogenides, such as selenium or tellurium. Ovshinsky's already used these materials to revolutionize battery and computer memory technology, but not electronics. "This is a region of quantum mechanics that has never been discovered ... or that we've been able to control," he said of the new device. "It's completely unique." It actually creates high-energy plasma in a solid state. Ovshinsky and other ECD scientists also said the devices could be made inexpensively in large, constant quantities, much as ECD's United Solar subsidiary makes a continuous roll of solar panels a mere half-micron thick in lengths up to nine miles at one production runs. It also allows logic and memory to be embedded in the same device, making computers simpler and faster.
Ovshinsky said it could literally make "supercomputers possible in a very small size," as well as computers that "think" more like animal brains. But he said he couldn't predict when products containing the new device might appear, pointing out that it took decades for batteries using his technologies to emerge, and six years for his computer memory technologies to move from licensing to devices. And Ovshinsky also said he wanted the devices built in Michigan. "Let's make this area the center for the revitalization of the American economy," he said. More at www.ovonic.com.
Stanford R. Ovshinsky, ECD Ovonics' President and Chief Scientist and Technologist, Announces a Fundamentally New Device with Potential to Open a Whole New Field of Semiconducting Control Devices
Rochester Hills, Mich., June 6, 2006 — Energy Conversion Devices, Inc.
(ECD Ovonics) (NASDAQ:ENER) is pleased to announce that Stanford R. Ovshinsky, its President, Chief Scientist and Technologist, at a press conference held today at 10:30 a.m., discussed a fundamentally new device, called the Ovonic Quantum Control, which has the potential to open a whole new field of semiconducting control devices.
The Ovonic Quantum Control, based on Stan Ovshinsky's invention of a unique proprietary all thin-film control device, is based on new physics and has multifunctionality beyond that of transistors. Its nanostructure size, great speed and very high current carrying capacity together with unusual modulation including gain, provide advantages over transistors.
Its multifunctional operational modes include the ability to be turned on by using a small pulse applied to a third terminal in either a latching or non-latching manner. This Ovonic device can scale to sizes smaller than a transistor. These unusual extra degrees of freedom make possible new generations of devices not based upon conventional crystalline physics.
"We believe the functionality of the Ovonic Quantum Control device will enable it to replace transistors and result in new circuitry. It will also be used in the Ovonic Cognitive processor, positioning it to augment and increase performance of today's computers and potentially become the preferred computational system, either binary or nonbinary. It can also be used in combination with the Ovonic phase change memory, Ovonic threshold switch and the Ovonic cognitive computer device. Therefore all thin-film computers would be made possible." Stan Ovshinsky said.
Mr. Ovshinsky was invited by the E*PCOS 06 Program Committee to present an invited talk on May 29, 2006 at the first joint Innovative Mass Storage Technologies — European Phase Change Ovonic Science (IMST2006-E*PCOS 06) conference in Grenoble, France. Mr. David A. Strand, ECD Ovonics' Vice President, Information Technology, represented Stan Ovshinsky at the E*PCOS 06 conference and delivered the invited talk.
This Ovonic Quantum Control device has the potential of low cost through all thin-film fabrication, including using Ovonic roll to roll processes. Ovshinsky's continuous web, triple junction, roll to roll Ovonic photovoltaic processor already makes 9 miles of thin-film, semiconducting photovoltaics in a single run.
Stan Ovshinsky and Dr. Iris Ovshinsky founded ECD Ovonics in January 1960 to work in energy and information, the twin pillars of the global economy. His premise is that information is encoded energy and both require new science, materials, mechanisms, inventions and technology to bring forth the industries that are needed to open new areas to meet the needs of our global economy. He created the field of amorphous and disordered materials in the middle 1950s and continues his leadership in the field.
About ECD Ovonics
ECD Ovonics is the leader in the synthesis of new materials and the development of advanced production technology and innovative products. It has invented, pioneered and developed its proprietary, enabling technologies in the fields of energy and information leading to new products and production processes based on amorphous, disordered and related materials. The Company's portfolio of alternative energy solutions includes Ovonic thin-film amorphous solar cells, modules, panels and systems for generating solar electric power; Ovonic NiMH batteries; Ovonic hydride storage materials capable of storing hydrogen in the solid state for use as a feedstock for fuel cells or internal combustion engines or as an enhancement or replacement for any type of hydrocarbon fuel; and Ovonic fuel cell technology. ECD Ovonics' proprietary advanced information technologies include Ovonic phase-change electrical memory, Ovonic phase-change optical memory and the Ovonic Threshold Switch. ECD Ovonics designs and builds manufacturing machinery that incorporates its proprietary production processes, maintains ongoing research and development programs to continually improve its products and develops new applications for its technologies. ECD Ovonics holds the basic patents in its fields. More information on ECD Ovonics is found on www.ovonic.com.
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This release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Safe Harbor Provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are based on assumptions which ECD Ovonics, as of the date of this release, believes to be reasonable and appropriate. ECD Ovonics cautions, however, that the actual facts and conditions that may exist in the future could vary materially from the assumed facts and conditions upon which such forward-looking statements are based. The risk factors identified in the ECD Ovonics filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its automatic shelf registration statement and related preliminary prospectus supplement, the company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and the company's most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q could impact any forward-looking statements contained in this release.
Contacts:
Ghazaleh Koefod – Investor Relations
Dick Thompson – Media Relations
Energy Conversion Devices, Inc.
248-293-0440
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