Flexible Energy Storage: The Importance Of Thickness (Energy Storage Innovations Europe 2017)

Flexible electronics requires flexible energy to power it. A growing number of applications such as medical devices, logistics, wearables and smart cards require a suitable energy source. However, there is no standard forms or sizes for flexible batteries, as there are in the bulk counterparts, and requirements for both electrical and mechanical characteristics vary significantly from application to application. Printing batteries naturally allows for this flexibility and we will share some of the experience and possibilities from developments so far. For instance, flexibility requirements of vary with applications and we show how thickness and flexibility are correlated. This has resulted in what we believe to be the thinnest battery commercially available

Dr. Pritesh Hiralal, CEO studied Physics and completed his Ph.D. in Engineering at the Cambridge University. He has spent time in business in Spain and set up Casa Hiralal S.L. and Zendal Backup. He has spent time in industry at the Nokia Research Centre working on high power energy storage, and has published 30+ papers and 8 patents in the field. He has consulted for materials as well as energy storage device companies. He spent time as a Research Associate as well as an adjunct lecturer at the University of Cambridge and is now a founder and CEO at Zinergy.

Zinergy UK Ltd is a start-up founded in 2015 with headquarters in Cambridge. Zinergy is emerging as a company developing state of the art, thin film printed batteries that are mechanically flexible. Our technology is principally based around zinc electrodes and aims to compete in cost and performance to fill a niche of truly thin batteries below 0.5mm. The application of these batteries complements printed electronics devices in various markets, including active RFID tags, smart cards, medical patches, etc. The rechargeable version extends this to energy scavenging systems such as solar cells and wearables.