Laminar Batteries - Missing the Big Opportunity?
December 9, 2008
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By Dr. Peter Harrop, Chairman, IDTechEx
Coin cells, otherwise known as button batteries, are a huge success. Whether it is for 100 million talking gift cards or 50 million car key remotes every year, the choice is coin cells. They are the favored power source for active RFID tags, hearing aids, wristwatches, calculators and a great deal besides. Even where a thinner battery is needed and footprint is not a constraint, the choice is usually coin cells not the laminar batteries made by an increasing number of businesses. Because their products can cost ten times as much as coin cells, the laminar batteries are usually having success only where the need for thinness and flexibility is extreme. An example of this is the Estee Lauder smart skin patch which delivers cosmetics through the skin using the iontophoretic effect.
The design consists of a Power Paper manganese zinc oxide battery and some printed electrodes, the patch being soaked in the cosmetic. A button battery would be very uncomfortable here and there are sufficient funds for the printed alternative because the benefits to the user justify considerable premium pricing. Indeed, several smart skin patches are about to be announced that incorporate printed batteries and such things as electronic swing tags for apparel retailing are near to significant orders thanks to the tremendous payback from adjusting prices remotely.
Questions remain however. The billions a year coin cell market is there for the taking. In most cases their applications are where a thinner battery would be valued and often flexibility as well. Only in a few cases does this command a price premium. For example, the Toppan Forms Audio Paper™, which employs a laminar battery and complete recording and playback circuit in thin card, has been a failure for gift cards because of cost but at around $10 per sheet, it is now selling well, in more modest volumes, for promotions. To tackle the coin cell market, those making laminar batteries need to do two things in particular that the coin cell people did years ago. Firstly, they should take high volume orders even at a loss so they can get economy of scale and get down the experience curve. Secondly they must be standardised. An elegant set of standards would use the publishing "A" size standards already being used in some sheet production of printed electronics and finished laminar electronic products. For example, e-books have limited success at A5 but A4 ones are now appearing as solutions. These will be a huge success because that will be compatible with most of the paper that business people handle across most of the world and the associated folders, bags and so on that are already out there. Batteries to go with this new electronics should be standard at A8 and so on. To new standard specifications for performance, they will usurp coin cells by becoming affordable, interchangeable and multiply sourced. The e-book (or e-label, e-package, e-poster or whatever) would have a standard space for the battery. Volumes of billions a year would certainly result.
Coin cells, otherwise known as button batteries, are a huge success. Whether it is for 100 million talking gift cards or 50 million car key remotes every year, the choice is coin cells. They are the favored power source for active RFID tags, hearing aids, wristwatches, calculators and a great deal besides. Even where a thinner battery is needed and footprint is not a constraint, the choice is usually coin cells not the laminar batteries made by an increasing number of businesses. Because their products can cost ten times as much as coin cells, the laminar batteries are usually having success only where the need for thinness and flexibility is extreme. An example of this is the Estee Lauder smart skin patch which delivers cosmetics through the skin using the iontophoretic effect.
The design consists of a Power Paper manganese zinc oxide battery and some printed electrodes, the patch being soaked in the cosmetic. A button battery would be very uncomfortable here and there are sufficient funds for the printed alternative because the benefits to the user justify considerable premium pricing. Indeed, several smart skin patches are about to be announced that incorporate printed batteries and such things as electronic swing tags for apparel retailing are near to significant orders thanks to the tremendous payback from adjusting prices remotely.
Questions remain however. The billions a year coin cell market is there for the taking. In most cases their applications are where a thinner battery would be valued and often flexibility as well. Only in a few cases does this command a price premium. For example, the Toppan Forms Audio Paper™, which employs a laminar battery and complete recording and playback circuit in thin card, has been a failure for gift cards because of cost but at around $10 per sheet, it is now selling well, in more modest volumes, for promotions. To tackle the coin cell market, those making laminar batteries need to do two things in particular that the coin cell people did years ago. Firstly, they should take high volume orders even at a loss so they can get economy of scale and get down the experience curve. Secondly they must be standardised. An elegant set of standards would use the publishing "A" size standards already being used in some sheet production of printed electronics and finished laminar electronic products. For example, e-books have limited success at A5 but A4 ones are now appearing as solutions. These will be a huge success because that will be compatible with most of the paper that business people handle across most of the world and the associated folders, bags and so on that are already out there. Batteries to go with this new electronics should be standard at A8 and so on. To new standard specifications for performance, they will usurp coin cells by becoming affordable, interchangeable and multiply sourced. The e-book (or e-label, e-package, e-poster or whatever) would have a standard space for the battery. Volumes of billions a year would certainly result.
Companies Mentioned:
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