A short microbattery update . . .
Lately, there’s been a substantial amount of focus on our ultracapacitor technology, and deservedly so. With our new IMDEA agreement and the first commercial use of the technology, it deserves to be showcased a little. And we’re thrilled about the attention it’s receiving.
In the meantime, our nanowire-based microbattery technology continues to move along. Our first overall performance goal was to make a device smaller than a postage stamp that hit a certain target power level.
The good news is that we've met that performance spec in the lab -- but the better news is that we've done so at a very low cost. Others in the industry tend to use expensive processes (e.g., sputtering machines, vacuum chambers and the like). We have done this almost entirely on chemical benches. The process is very inexpensive.
The fact of the matter is, if anyone is going to embed a battery into a credit card (or similar item) to power a small display and/or microchip, the price of that battery is going to need to be very low; mostly because the users won't pay anything up front to get the card (in many applications). It looks like we will be able to meet the low price expectations.
So, what remains for us is packaging, and a whole lot of testing, which are not small tasks. We have one group of researchers working on packaging while the others in the lab think that, with a couple tweaks, they can double the microbattery's power output . . . they're working on that angle.
In a few days, we plan to issue a corporate update with some additional detail on this and some of the other things happening at the company.
In the meantime, our nanowire-based microbattery technology continues to move along. Our first overall performance goal was to make a device smaller than a postage stamp that hit a certain target power level.
The good news is that we've met that performance spec in the lab -- but the better news is that we've done so at a very low cost. Others in the industry tend to use expensive processes (e.g., sputtering machines, vacuum chambers and the like). We have done this almost entirely on chemical benches. The process is very inexpensive.
The fact of the matter is, if anyone is going to embed a battery into a credit card (or similar item) to power a small display and/or microchip, the price of that battery is going to need to be very low; mostly because the users won't pay anything up front to get the card (in many applications). It looks like we will be able to meet the low price expectations.
So, what remains for us is packaging, and a whole lot of testing, which are not small tasks. We have one group of researchers working on packaging while the others in the lab think that, with a couple tweaks, they can double the microbattery's power output . . . they're working on that angle.
In a few days, we plan to issue a corporate update with some additional detail on this and some of the other things happening at the company.
posted by Dave Walker at
7:44 AM
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