Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : ULBI..Ultralife Batteries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: webpilot who wrote (211)	5/6/1998 4:06:00 AM
From: Javelyn Bjoli	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 522

From the April issue of Portable Design magazine, excerpt of 7-page story on batteries: Li-ion Polymer Rollout Bellcore predicts the still nascent market for Li-ion solid -polymer batteries will reach about $4 billion by 2003. The first Bellcore licensee to roll out production quantities is Ultralife Batteries (Newark, NY). "Solid polymers can truly empower portable electronic designs," says Julius Cirin, technical director at Ultralife. "Thanks to them, for the first time designers can view space differently. Where cylindrical cells waste 22% of the available volume, solid polymers can fill that space with energy." Ultralife chemists combined their own ingredients with Bellcore's to derive a solid-polymer Li-ion battery using a LiMnO cathode. One version that's SMBus 1.0-compliant (System Management Bus) powers Mitsubishi's superthin Pedion notebook. Although the notebook is impressive, its battery still only provides a two-hour runtime - insufficient to meet the needs of cross-country business flyers. Based on Ultralife's predictions for solid-polymer's success, the company says it's ramping for volume delivery. But some contend that Ultralife's production isn't quite up to speed. "No one is mass producing solid-polymer lithium cells," argues Toshiba America's [Ritch] Russ. Russ does respect Ultralife's progress, however. "Other big battery makers would love to be in Ultralife's position, even though the technology isn't to the point of mass production." Nonetheless, Russ predicts that the moment one vendor establishes a customer base, other battery makers will scramble to launch their own Li-polymer products. Despite detractors, Ultralife claims it's doing a good business designing custom batteries for cellphones and laptops - systems whose discharge characteristics aren't extreme. "Cellphones need between 400 mA-hr and 1000 mA-hr capacity," says Cirin. "Although a cellphone typically draws current at a 0.2C to 0.5C rate, it sometimes requires pulse currents as high as 4C. Notebooks, on the other hand, operate at a 1C rate or less. They need between 2A-hr and 3A-hr capacity. "Ultralife has demonstrated a one-second pulse as high as 10C, which is in the realm of portable tools," adds Cirin. "Li-ion manufacturers haven't pursued that area aggressively yet - due to cost. Availability is low. It's barely able to serve cellphone and laptop markets, let alone price-driven consumer appliances. I predict, however, that Li-ion polymer batteries will drop into the $1/W-hr to $2/W-hr range, becoming competitive with NiCds that cost under $1/W-hr." Hard on the heels of Ultralife, other companies now sampling and working with select customers on Li-ion polymer technology include Battery Engineering, Gould's Powerdex (Eastlake, Ohio), and startup PolyPlus Battery (Berkeley, CA). Firms in the R&D phase include Duracell (Bethel, CT), EPS, Toshiba, and Sanyo Energy (San Diego, CA).