Cymbet Announces "Green" Thin-Film Batteries

Cymbet Corp. announced that its new EnerChip™ family of thin-film battery devices, which the company says offers something truly unique in battery technology: environmentally friendly, "green" performance. EnerChips are designed for semiconductor, medical, sensor, RFID, communications and portable electronic devices.

Environmental friendliness is said to be a key EnerChip attribute, since the product is designed to eliminate battery replacement and last the life of the device it powers. As a solid-state device, the EnerChip is lead-free and contains no hazardous materials, flammable solvents or liquids that can harm the user or the environment, therefore eliminating or reducing some end-of-life product costs.

Said Cymbet CEO Bill Priesmeyer, "When coupled with energy-harvesting or energy-scavenging techniques, an EnerChip can supply the energy storage to build self-contained, long-lived powered systems and avoid the use of traditional battery power approaches. Using an EnerChip battery to power sensors, RFID tags or other remote devices – in combination with energy already available in the environment – is both cost and environmentally beneficial."

Cymbet states that the EnerChip’s small form factor and highly rechargeable, solid-state, thin-film advancements can be economically and reliably integrated as an embedded device or as a surface-mounted component. The EnerChip family is well suited for applications where back-up power is needed to maintain the settings of microcontroller memories, real-time-clocks and SRAM during power loss or power failures.

All EnerChip products can be lead-free reflow soldered (260°C) using automated high-speed assembly processes, significantly reducing assembly cost. The devices offer a fast recharge time (under 30 minutes to 80%), are capable of greater than 5,000 charge/discharge cycles and do not suffer from the self-discharge limitations associated with super capacitors or shelf-life limitations common to chemical batteries. Currently, product is available in capacities of 12, 50 and 85µAh.