Toshiba Battery Announces GigaEnergy Battery Cell

Toshiba Battery Co. Ltd. (Tokyo) unveiled its new GigaEnergy battery for digital cameras. Toshiba adopted nickel oxyhydroxide for the positive electrode of the new battery, which is currently used for nickel-hydride rechargeable batteries. Toshiba Battery has rearranged the structure of the crystal of the nickel oxyhydroxide to make the flow of electrons from the battery smooth during a large electric-current discharge.

Tests conducted by the company showed that a digital camera using the new battery operated continuously five times longer than when using an alkaline battery under the normal temperature (25 degrees C). The new battery also performs well at low temperatures. The operating time of devices working on the new battery showed only a slight decrease at the same temperature. Tests conducted by the company revealed that the operating time of devices working on the new battery under 0 degrees C was 17 times longer than that of devices working on alkaline batteries.

The battery comes in an AA size in a set of two or four batteries. The four-battery set is priced at 960 yen (US$7.74), and the two-battery set is priced at 480 yen (US$3.87). Toshiba Battery will start shipping the new batteries in March 2002.