In this week’s podcast, we’re stepping onto the frontier of battery innovation! My guest is Volexion CEO Joe Adiletta. Joe and I discuss why some battery materials perform great in a lab but fail in real world production, what “designing backward from the factory” means in terms of battery design and the role that manufacturing plays when it comes to the scaling of these kinds of advanced materials. Also this week, I check out a revolutionary memristor that can function at temperatures at 700 degrees Celsius.
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Amelia’s Weekly Fish Fry – Episode 677
Release Date: April 17, 2026
Hello everyone, and welcome to episode number 677 of Amelia’s Weekly Fish Fry, the electronic engineering podcast brought to you by EEJournal.com and written, produced, and hosted by yours truly, Amelia Dalton.
In this week’s podcast, we’re stepping onto the frontier of battery innovation. My guest is Volexion CEO Joe Adiletta. Joe and I discuss why some battery materials perform great in the lab but fail in real-world production, what “designing backward from the factory” means in battery design, and the role manufacturing plays when scaling advanced materials.
Also this week, I check out a revolutionary new memristor that can function at temperatures around 1300°F.
But first, please welcome Joe to Fish Fry.
Amelia Dalton:
Hi Joe, thank you so much for joining me.
Joe Adiletta:
It’s a pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me.
Amelia Dalton:
Absolutely. First off, tell my audience a bit about Volexion.
Joe Adiletta:
Sure. We’re a coatings company focused on advanced materials and manufacturing, primarily in the battery industry. When you pick up a typical battery—say an Energizer or Duracell—you’ve got a positive end and a negative end. The positive side is the cathode, and the negative is the anode.
Each side relies on a specialized powder that does the heavy lifting inside the battery—moving electrons and ions back and forth. What we do is take the cathode active material powder and coat it with a thin layer of graphene. So really, we do two things: we produce a low-cost, high-performance graphene material, and we apply it in a simple, scalable way.
Amelia Dalton:
Very cool. Let’s talk about the intersection of battery manufacturing and advanced materials. Why do some battery materials perform well in the lab but fail in real-world production?
Joe Adiletta:
That’s a great question. Batteries have a huge number of requirements, and meeting most of them isn’t enough—it’s the one you miss that disqualifies you. A well-known battery expert at MIT used to say that it’s not the 19 out of 20 requirements you meet, it’s the one you don’t that gets you.
Failures happen for several reasons. Early-stage companies may lack experience or industrial knowledge. Some requirements are difficult or expensive to test. And certain issues only show up at scale. Safety is a great example—small batteries may behave fine, but larger ones with more stored energy can become dangerous.
So, requirements, testing limitations, and scaling challenges all contribute to why something can look great in the lab but fail in production.
Amelia Dalton:
That makes sense. I’ve heard the term “designing backward from the factory.” What does that mean, and why is it important?
Joe Adiletta:
Batteries are incredibly complex electromechanical systems built with very tight tolerances. You have to understand how they’re manufactured from the start.
If your material requires changes to existing manufacturing processes, things can go sideways very quickly—and very expensively. I like to compare battery manufacturing to making baklava: it’s layer after layer in a confined space. Even baking something simple requires precision, and when you scale that up with industrial tolerances and capital, it becomes extremely complex.
Amelia Dalton:
Let’s talk about scaling. What role does manufacturing play there?
Joe Adiletta:
Simply put, scale is the product. Batteries need to be produced in the billions. Just look around—your phone, earbuds, laptop, all powered by lithium-ion batteries. Multiply that globally, and the numbers are enormous.
You need extremely high quality and precision at that scale. Even though we occasionally hear about recalls, the overall defect rates are remarkably low given the complexity. So you always have to think about scale from the beginning.
Amelia Dalton:
What applications could benefit from your technology, and where is Volexion headed?
Joe Adiletta:
Our technology is a platform—it applies across current and future battery systems. Whether it’s making devices thinner, extending EV range, improving grid resilience, or enabling faster drone performance, we can help.
Looking ahead, we focus on two things: producing high-performance graphene and applying it. Graphene is an exceptional interfacial modifier—chemically, electrically, thermally, and mechanically. So we’re exploring new high-value interfaces where we can make meaningful improvements.
Amelia Dalton:
Fantastic. Time for your off-the-cuff question: If you could have one meal right now, anywhere in the world, what would it be?
Joe Adiletta:
I’d have to say gumbo—specifically, the one I make at home. It takes most of the day, but it’s a family tradition. I’ve got four kids, and we make it every year on back-to-school night. It’s become our version of New Year’s—a time to come together and talk about goals for the year. I wouldn’t trade that for anything.
Amelia Dalton:
That sounds wonderful. Joe, thank you so much for joining me.
Joe Adiletta:
Thanks again for having me.
Have you heard about the new heat-proof memory device?
A team of researchers at the University of Southern California has unveiled a memristor that can operate at 700°C—or around 1300°F. Yes, that’s hotter than molten lava and far beyond what’s been achieved for this type of technology.
In fact, it may go even higher—700°C was simply the limit of their testing equipment.
The device was built using tungsten for the top electrode, hafnium oxide as the insulating layer, and graphene for the bottom electrode. Tungsten was chosen for its extremely high melting point, while graphene provides exceptional strength and heat resistance.
The results are impressive. The device retained data for over 50 hours at 700°C without refresh, operated at just 1.5 volts, endured more than a billion switching cycles, and achieved speeds in the tens of nanoseconds.
Interestingly, the discovery was accidental. As lead researcher Joshua Yang put it:
“To be honest, it was by accident, as most discoveries are.”
So what makes this device different?
In conventional electronics, heat causes metal atoms to migrate through the insulating layer, eventually shorting the device. But graphene prevents this. Combined with tungsten, it creates a surface where atoms can’t attach—like oil and water—preventing conductive bridges from forming.
This mechanism was confirmed using advanced microscopy, spectroscopy, and quantum simulations.
Where could this technology be used?
Space is an obvious answer. Venus, for example, has surface temperatures around 500°C—far beyond the limits of current electronics. This technology could change that.
Other applications include:
- Geothermal energy systems
- Nuclear and fusion environments
- High-temperature industrial settings
- Automotive systems requiring extreme durability
And then there’s AI. Over 90% of AI computation involves matrix multiplication, and memristors can perform these operations far more efficiently and at lower power.
Are these memristors ready for prime time? Not yet. But they represent a critical first step.
Joshua Yang and his team have already co-founded a company, TetraMem, to commercialize memristor-based AI chips. While current products operate at room temperature, this high-temperature breakthrough opens the door to entirely new environments.
As Yang notes, the missing component has now been demonstrated—and that makes future progress possible.
If you’d like more information about this study or Volexion, check out the links below the player on this week’s Fish Fry page at EEJournal.com.
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Thanks for tuning in. If you’ve got a cool new technology or just want to chat, email me at amelia@eejournal.com or post on our forums.
For the week of April 17, 2026, I’m Amelia Dalton—and you’ve been fried.
