Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1071356
22 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2019 Johnson: Once they join and see the value, do they keep coming back to what you have to offer? Baker: Absolutely. A lot of people don't get what we do at first. But once they try it, they keep coming back because it's a bit of a magical experience. Johnson: Is one body of your audience easier to integrate with than the other? Baker: In the beginning, it was easier to work with distributors because they instantly see the value since people buy components. The vendor portion took longer, but now our value is clear to them. We're working with them more. I'm excited about this because I feel like we can help them a lot. Johnson: Where do you see your product going in the next three to five years? Baker: There are so many things I want to do and that I'm so excited about, but I think I'm going to keep them up my sleeve for now. Johnson: One thing we can take away from this conversation is that you have a pretty extensive roadmap for the next three to five years. Baker: Yes. I feel like we haven't even scratched the surface of where I want to go. Businesses can be hard because you always want to do so many things, but you can only do a portion of them. It's a constant frustration. Johnson: That makes sense, but it seems like you have a good strategy that's disciplined and will keep you focused. Before we finish, is there anything else you'd like to discuss? Baker: We're working something really special for electronics engineers and PCB designers over here at SnapEDA, which is so much more than just a symbol and footprint library. Yes, we're a company, but this is just as much a passion project for our team members, built out of our own experiences designing PCBs. We've made an incredible free product that saves engineers so much time, and we're constantly improving it based on the feedback we get from our community. I'd definitely recommend that readers create a free account and give it a try! Johnson: Sounds awesome. Thank you for your time, Natasha. Baker: Thank you so much for the opportunity to be involved in this. DESIGN007 By studying the inner workings of lithium-ion batteries, Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have devel- oped a highly sensitive technique to characterize and measure at the electrolyte and electrode interface. Their finding, published in ACS Nano, could help in understanding the funda- mental factors that determine the com- position and stability of solid electrolyte interphase, or SEI. "A robust SEI is key to the performance and safety of Li-ion batteries used to power electric vehicles," said Jagjit Nanda, senior staff scientist and team lead, spectroscopy and interfaces, at ORNL. Li-ion batteries comprise positive and negative electrodes, each containing an electrolyte, or salt, solution, separated by a membrane. The researchers used surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy to evaluate how the lithium-salt interacts between the liquid electrolyte and electrode. "We found that the ion-solvation at the interface differs from what we observed in the bulk liquid electrolyte," Nanda said. Understanding this phenomenon could lead to improved electrolytes resulting in batteries with higher performance and better stability. (Source: Oak Ridge National Laboratory) Batteries—Solid-liquid Interface