Battery thin-film - A safe alternative to lithium-ion batteries

Where a laptop manufacturer recently recalled a lithium-ion battery manufactured by Sony helped clarify a drawback of this battery.

That type of battery usually contains some materials that are susceptible to change, when operating temperatures often rise and have a relatively short useful life. Any problems arising probably stem from lithium-ion battery manufacturing technology.

However, recently the battery has faced a potential competitor - the thin-film battery. However, this type of battery is still in the prototype production phase.

The thin-film battery uses solid lithium instead of liquid like the old lithium-ion battery. Therefore, this battery will be less likely to overheat and burn. Moreover, these batteries do not cause much power loss, they can be charged and continue to be used thousands of times before needing to replace them with new products.

Battery thin-film - A safe alternative to lithium-ion batteries Picture 1

Dell's laptop uses a burnt lithium-ion battery

The prospect of applying thin-film battery technology to bring this product to market is very positive as this project has received a lot of financial support.

Infinite Power Solutions - developer of thin-film battery technology - confirmed that it has received about $ 34.7 million from a group of private companies. With this investment, Infinite Power Solutions said that they can fully bring new technology batteries into mass production next year.

Raymond R. Johnson - executive chairman of Infinite Power Solutions - confirmed that his firm has solved all the technical problems 'getting in the way' of mass production of new batteries. Infinite Power Solutions has successfully produced thin-film battery products that can be used and recharged more than 10,000 times.

In addition to Infinite Power Solutions, there are a number of other companies that develop thin-film battery technologies such as Cymbet Corporation, Excellatron Solid State and Oak Ridge Micro-Energy. Some firms have also planned to launch products within the next few years.

Thin-film battery technology could replace lithium-ion batteries applied on current notebook or mobile phones. But to be able to achieve that result, perhaps new battery technology still takes a few years.

Not only is the world battery industry developing a scaled-down version of thin-film technology. In this case the battery will be as small as a stamp and directly attached to the computer's microprocessor chip.

Hoang Dung