Strategic Elements Ltd (ASX:SOR) continues to make progress with the development of battery ink technology and has been granted a patent for Nanocube Memory Ink technology in Japan.
The patent family is held by 100%-owned subsidiary Australian Advanced Materials Pty Ltd (AAM) with Japanese patent, JP6968057, a Japanese jurisdictional equivalent to AAM’s US patent granted in January 2020.
Strategic Elements, a Pooled Development Fund with a mandate to back Australian innovation, is developing printable computer memory and printable battery technologies with a team of world-leading development partners.
In September unrestricted access and full-time operations re-commenced at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and this has enabled an increase in resources available to the development team.
The company believes this will result in achieving battery milestones in the near-term and for certain work related to the Nanocube Memory Ink to begin in the first quarter of 2022.
A key milestone was achieved in the third quarter of 2021 when SOR’s moisture-based battery technology produced more than a milliamp of electrical current from humidity in the air.
Prototype battery ink cells produced 100mAh (milliamp hours) of electric charge over three days, a considerable achievement as the company increases the potential array of applications that could be powered by the technology.
Further optimisation
Further improvement in performance is expected over the next few months as the prototype ink becomes increasingly optimised for use in screen printing equipment.
The battery ink is being developed by integrating significant existing ink formulation and printed electronics IP from the company’s nanocube memory ink technology.
Development has progressed from low voltages to 0.8V per cell, small scale ink to 1L batches and from microamp to milliamp range of electric current output.
Fabrication has moved from lab methods to small area screen printing of the battery ink, which has set the foundation for the next stage of advancement in the technology.
Focus on skin patch segment
The initial focus remains on the skin patch segment of the electronics sector as it has a very large global market, as most current requirements are lower (500 µA – 5 mA) with less capacity (220mAh) and duration needs are shorter (1- 7 days).
Other benefits of the battery ink technology such as the thin, lightweight, flexible, environmentally friendly, non-flammable nature of the battery cells make it an ideal candidate for the electronic skin patch segment.
In the short term, development will remain focused on the larger battery ink cells and simpler architecture specifically targeted towards the electronic skin patch sector.
SOR’s objective is to increase current output to over 5mA and produce at least 220 mAh of electric charge from a single battery ink device in the fourth quarter of 2021.
READ: Strategic Elements electrifies with battery ink tech in September quarter
The battery ink technology is still in early development and the fundamental upper limits of aspects such as maximum power output, duration, energy density remain unknown.
Multiple avenues to potentially increase performance significantly have been identified by the team at UNSW.
Secondary work has also commenced to various aspects such as ink formulation, battery cell size and architecture relevant to applications requiring higher performance than electronic skin patches.
The development of self-charging batteries is one of four technology themes SOR is focusing one with the others being robotics and automation, transparent flexible memory and data-related tech.