- Firelake Capital

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End-user industries
Thinking big
Digitally printed batteries could soon be produced in vast numbers,
powering applications from credit cards to drug delivery
W
ith all the fuss about future
flexible and bended applications sometimes it is
almost forgotten that these solutions
also require batteries that bend or are
flexible in order to work properly.
One company that is working on this
problem is American based Solicore,
which manufactures thin and flexible
lithium polymer batteries for multiple uses
including display based credit/debit cards,
powered gift cards as well as smart labels
for RFID. In co-operation with a strategic
investor the Florida based experts have
now developed what they call the world’s
first digitally printed 3V thin-film battery.
OPE journal met Dave Corey,
Solicore CEO, to discuss this latest
development and its possible applications and impact on future products.
Taking
on the market
Under the Flexion line, Solicore offers batteries in a variety
of shapes and sizes. They offer
a shelf life between two to four
years depending on the product
chosen and are ISO 7816 certified.
They have a capacity of 10mAh25mAh and survive hot lamination
(135°C) at 220PSI. They can work in
temperatures between -10 and 60°C
and are between 0.37 and 0.45mm
thick. Their nominal rating is 3V.
Dave Corey
OPE journal: Mr Corey, please
tell us a little about the production of this flexible battery.
Dave Corey: The first step involved
leveraging our expertise in thin film battery
production, which is currently manufactured using a coating process at our
production facility in Lakeland, Florida.
From that expertise, we created a screen
printed battery, followed by our current
development effort, which has lead to the
joint creation of a digitally printed battery.
The technology breakthrough centred
on ink formulation and the modifications
required to digitally print, while maintaining the targeted electrical properties
and characteristics of the battery.
some consumer printers. This technology provides registered high resolution
printing and allows for a wider variety
of inks than thermal inkjet as there is no
requirement for a volatile component.
OPE: What are the advantages of
producing batteries using digital printing
opposed to conventional methods?
D. Corey: The key advantages are
the ability to scale in extremely large
volumes combined with greater latitude
to produce different sizes and shapes
to better fit a variety of applications.
referred to as ”one time pass codes“
or OTP, as well as balance information,
loyalty points and a variety of key data all
by using one person’s credit card. The
demand represents billions of units.
The other key areas include powering
of RF and sensor solutions for temperature tracking. The final target area is to
incorporate the printed battery into smart
packaging for consumer applications.
This could enable a box to light up or the
means to power a circuit to communicate
a discount, to an indicator of when a product needs to be replaced or re-ordered.
OPE: Surely, it is unlikely to
OPE: What applications are you
OPE: What printing method did you
targeting with these batteries?
stop there and you will have
­further plans for the future?
turn to in order achieve your goal
of a digitally printed battery?
D. Corey: A market that is currently
D. Corey: Of course there are additio-
very important to us is powered card
applications, whereby the credit cards
of the future will have a display and
the ability to generate security codes,
nal fields that might become interesting
in time. While powered cards currently
present the largest immediate demand,
other market opportunities continue to
D. Corey: We turned to an ink jet
technology called piezoelectric, which
is used by commercial, industrial and
No 6 | 2014 | OPE journal
17
emerge including the use of a battery in
medical patches to drive sensors and/
or drug delivery. What we envisage here
is that the battery controls the circuit
and activation of when a drug would
be delivered and for what duration. The
other area is the powering of key sensors, an example being a temperature
device to measure the life cycle exposure of a product in a ‘smart label’.
OPE: In an industry that is largely
focused on development you are among
the few companies that are already
marketing their products in big numbers.
Please tell us a little about that.
city to produce these
batteries in tens of
millions. Our production plant in Lakeland,
Florida has the ability
to build over 20+
million units annually
and with our advancements in both screen
and digital printing
that capacity is able
to grow into hundreds
of millions of units.
OPE: So what are
the goals you are
working towards now?
D. Corey: It is true that our flexible
batteries are available today. As mentioned
earlier our current production utilises a
coating process. In this process we coat
key components of the battery onto our
packaging foil building up the layers as
needed with the lithium placed as a foil
material as a part of the final packaging
111025-ANZ_halbseitig_ENG_RZ_Q7:Layout
1
and assembly. We currently have the capa-
D. Corey: The cur-
A battery made by Solicore
rent family of batteries
are all primary cell and are not rechargeable. We are now looking at modifications
to create a new line of flexible batteries
that can be recharged, extending their
use and broadening the applications in
25.10.2011
12:14 can
Seite
5 effectively
which our technology
most
fit. This ability to offer both primary and
secondary flexible batteries would be
a major leap forward for the industry.
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