Ensurge Micropower, a provider of solid-state lithium microbatteries for a new generation of wearables, hearables and IoT devices, has announced it is producing packaged lithium solid-state microbatteries with high performance and improved manufacturing flow. In addition to this progress, Ensurge has started producing sample volumes of high capacity multi-layer solid-state lithium microbatteriesusing its architecture based on a 10-micron stainless steel substrate. Achieving these milestones is a major step toward bringing Ensurge’s solid-state microbattery products into volume production, now projected for the second half of the year.
“These two milestones are extremely significant for Ensurge as it prepares to scale production for these market-changing solid-state lithium microbatteries. Our batteries will revolutionise the way next generation products are designed to enable enhanced capabilities and performance,” says Mark Newman, Ensurge chief executive officer. “The Ensurge technical and operations teams have done a phenomenal job in making substantial progress over the last six (6) months to realise the world’s first high energy density microbatteries with capacities in the 1 to 100 milliampere-hour range (mAh).”
Ensurge’s solid-state lithium microbatteries provide Volumetric Energy Density (VED) of 650 to 750 Watt-hours per liter (Wh/L) that is as much as three times that of similar capacity Lithium-ion (Li-ion) microbatteries and up to ten times that of competing solid-state microbatteries. This VED enables Ensurge microbatteries to pack more capacity in a small form factor that is also customizable to suit the shape of the end-product.
Beyond their VED advancements, these solid-state lithium microbatteries also provide other benefits including charging to 80% battery capacity in 20 minutes compared to Li-ion microbatteries, which need up to 2 hours to be recharged. Also, Ensurge microbatteries support higher discharge pulses of at least 5C, enabling them to support many wireless communication chipsets or other current load transients as hearable and wearable users demand improved connectivity. Additionally, the ability for the microbattieries to be assembled using a standard Surface Mount Technology (SMT) process reduces manufacturing costs while increasing production output.
Ensurge is simultaneously preparing to scale production of a customized version of its microbattery that it has developed for provider in the digital health market. This customer placed a 150,000-unit order for the product in December 2022.
Over the past 10 months, Ensurge has made steady progress toward bringing its microbattery to market, including shipping unit-cell samples and then packaged microbattery samples to multiple prospective customers and partners. Through these development stages, the company has validated key elements of its solid-state lithium microbattery chemistry and packaging that will enable hearable and wearable suppliers to create products with features that cannot be offered using alternative battery technology.
For more information about Ensurge’s microbattery technology visit the company’s website here.
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