Applied Materials, located in Sunnyvale, California, designs and makes equipment used in the manufacture of computer chips and other miniature electronic devices. Your editor worked there on assignment from his engineering firm for six months 15 years ago, documenting and verifying the equipment and control systems for their newest facility. Even then, miniature was wild understatement, with the company crafting machinery that could produce 0.18 µm lines in silicon chips. In the last two decades, line widths have shrunk to 0.03 µm, and the number of elements on chips has increased proportionally. This makes nano manufacturing a highly precise endeavor, and one which seems to defy credulity with lower costs for the ever-increasing number of chips being made. It’s this type of manufacturing expertise which makes possible the electronic life we lead today and one that relies increasingly on energy storage technology. The very things that make solid state computing possible could produce solid state batteries – an advantageous storage …