Silicon oxide-carbon technology advance doubles battery capacity
The new technology claims to double the capacity for a given battery volume compared to today’s conventional lithium-ion batteries.
Under the terms of the agreement, Kopin will exclusively market the batteries to OEM customers under the brand name SiMax for use in head-worn wearable products. The first SiMax battery measures 46 x 10.5 x 5.5 mm with 400 mAh capacity and will be shown at CES 2016. Initial production will begin in the second quarter of 2016 and the batteries will be used in Kopin’s Solos cycling eyewear product.
Conventional Li-ion battery capacity has been increasing gradually in recent years and there has been a widening mismatch between what consumers would like to do with mobile and wearable devices and what they can do. The higher capacity, smaller and lighter SiMax batteries will enable the performance gap to be closed and more closely match consumer requirements for wearable products and head-worn systems.
Masao Okafuji, chief technology officer of Hitachi Maxell, said: “While it has been well known that the use of high-SiO-C-content anode can provide several times the energy density than the graphite anode used in today’s Li-ion cells, until now serious technical challenges prevented its use. We have now overcome these technical challenges and are ready to commercialize the first batteries using this new technology.”
“Our collaboration with Hitachi Maxell represents a leap forward in battery technology and the wearables market,” said Dr. John C.C. Fan, president and CEO of Kopin. “Wearables will only reach their potential if the technologies inside them can support the best possible user experience. Smaller, longer-lasting, lighter batteries are a critical building block for the success of wearables, in addition to compact displays that provide large, high-resolution images and speech enhancement technology that provides reliable communication in all noise environments.”
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