
326 Process Techniques for Engineering High-Performance Materials
Dealing with Trade-Offs
All movements go too far.
Bertrand Russell
In the race to provide more compact and powerful electronic gadgets, bat-
teries are a limiting factor. Consumers want lightweight devices to run for
the longest possible time and recharge quickly. These conicting desires cre-
ate stress when pushing capabilities to the limit. Process variability in this
situation results in spectacular failures. In 2006, res in laptop computers
sparked massive recall operations due to a few Sony lithium-ion batteries at
the extremes of the bell curve.
In this technology, a thin composi ...