The company's Stereax battery family is now able to address the key challenges associated with the effective deployment of IoT devices i.e. always on, self charging and energy efficiency and that the new battery technology would enable smaller, higher energy-dense batteries.
“Ilika has been developing a range of materials that have enabled us to tailor battery designs that meet the specific needs of the IoT,” said Graeme Purdy, CEO, Ilika. “For IoT devices to gain wide adoption they need to be able to be fitted then forgotten about.”
The company said that it was looking to help drive the wider adoption of IoT devices through what is described as a ‘fit and forget’ design, enabling IoT sensors to be fitted without further maintenance, including changing batteries.
“One of the key challenges for IoT devices is enabling long life energy-efficient power sources,” said Franco Gonzalez, industry analyst from IDTechEx. “The combination of energy harvesting and battery technology has been urgently needed to enable small, energy efficient solutions that can easily be installed across a wide range of locations with minimum maintenance.”
Solid state batteries are the key to the wide-spread adoption of the IoT as they can be used in conjunction with all the current energy harvesting technologies whilst being able to match the energy needs for IoT devices. However, many IoT devices only need power in short bursts in order to collect and transmit data; they also need to be able to support a wide range of environment temperatures. Relative to standard lithium ion batteries, solid state batteries have lower leakage currents (10x smaller) and longer life spans of up to 10 years (4x longer). They can also be integrated with other IC components keeping the size of the end device to a minimum.
“Many IoT devices will be deployed in places that are difficult to service on a regular basis so self-sufficiency is critical,” explained Charlene Marini vice president, segment marketing, ARM. “Ilika’s’ Stereax batteries can help as the technology will enable ‘leave for life’ IoT devices capable of producing data over extended periods with minimal maintenance. This is where the IoT starts to shed the power tether that could restrain its spread into new and exciting off-grid applications.”
Ilika Stereax batteries use patented materials and processes enabling superior energy density per battery footprint, up to 40% improvement on current solid state solutions, and increased temperature range support to over 100°C, 30°C higher than existing solid state products. By not containing any free lithium enables more moisture resistant products.
