PowerCache Announces Availability of the New PC100 Ultracapacitor

PowerCache (San Diego, CA), a Maxwell Technologies company, announced the availability of the PC100, a 100-farad ultracapacitor. PowerCache claims that the new PC100 can increase battery operating life while reducing battery size in automatic meter readers; automotive applications; black box data recorders for commercial and military aviation; backup power for UPS applications; or any other product requiring pulsed power, high-cycle reliability and/or low maintenance.

Measuring 34 x 55 x 17mm, the PC100 caches roughly 300 Joules of energy at 2.5V for high-powered discharges ranging from fractions of a second to one minute. According to Robert Tressler, vice president of sales and marketing for PowerCache, "The size and pulsed power capacity of the PC100 can lower the weight and cost of batteries in devices requiring bursts of power. The PC100 can provide power during an application's peak periods with roughly 10 times the power density of ordinary batteries, such as when backing important data systems," said Tressler. "By doing so, the PC100 relieves batteries of peak power functions, so a product's life can be drastically extended and easily maintained while the overall system cost is simultaneously reduced. In addition, the PC100 can provide extended back-up power availability, allowing critical information and functions to remain available during dips, sags and outages in the main power supply or battery charge."

The PC100 is now available in a durable, lightweight, hermetically sealed, stainless-steel, prismatic can. It features easily accessible, solderable terminals and an electrostatic storage capability that can cycle hundreds of thousands of charges and discharges without performance degradation. The PC100 is capable of accepting charges at the identical rate of discharges for systems that can benefit from regenerative energy.