Battery Power, Products & Technology Magazine and Conference

Battery Power

Matt Ream, Marketing Manager
Blue Spark Technologies

According to industry analysts, the commercialization of printed electronics is projected to revolutionize major segments of the portable electronics industry. Printed electronics describe the printing of electronic devices on common media, such as paper, plastic or textiles, using traditional printing processes. Devices now being produced in this way are programmable chips/integrated circuits (ICs), RFID antennas and tags, printed displays and thin printed batteries, which provide a low-voltage, eco-friendly power source to activate the device’s functionality.

Industry analyst IDTechEx forecasts the market potential for printed electronics will be more than $35 billion by 2018. NanoMarkets predicts that sales of thin film and printed batteries will exceed $5 billion by 2015.

The growth of printed electronics is being driven by leading developers and integrators who are forming alliances to exploit the technology’s unique capabilities to create products and systems that generate business value. We are already starting to see exciting innovations in printed electronics in the industrial, financial, security, food, pharmaceutical, healthcare and consumer markets.

Blue Spark Technologies’ customizable 1.5-volt carbon-zinc batteries provide a reliable, eco-friendly power source for numerous applications. The company’s battery technology is built on patented intellectual property acquired from the Eveready Battery Company (now Energizer).

The Role of Thin Printed Batteries
At the heart of many of these new products are thin, flexible printed carbon-zinc batteries that function as primary battery cells. They are not rechargeable; however, they are relatively low in cost and offer a broad range of capabilities. Batteries may be safely stored in cold storage to slow the chemical reaction in the battery, extending its shelf life. Power generation in the battery results from a chemical reaction between the electrolyte liquid and other materials.

Most standard printed carbon-zinc batteries generate 1.5 volts and are capable of delivering peak drain currents of at least 1 mA. Voltages above 1.5 V can be supplied by integrating multiple 1.5 V cells in series into a single package. Depending on the application, customizable versions can also be designed. With conventional printing, production is faster and less costly, so new designs can be prototyped quickly and economically. Additional advantages of printed batteries over traditional button or coin cells include:
• Thin, Flexible, Form Factor: Thickness profiles ranging from 700 microns (0.027 inch) to ultra-thin 500 microns (0.020 inch) allow printed batteries to share a thin, flexible substrate with other small form factor electronics. This helps to streamline assembly and reduces the time and cost of integrating “smart electronics” into new products.

• Eco-Friendly, Safely Disposable: Unlike batteries containing lithium, mercury and other battery chemistries, carbon-zinc batteries are completely “green.” They are lead-free and contain no toxic substances, fully meeting the European Union’s Restrictions on Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive and are safely disposable. This is important as global environmental regulations become more and more stringent.

Applications are Growing
As awareness and adoption of printed electronics and printed batteries continues to expand worldwide, the number and diversity of applications continues to increase. Following is a sampling of product applications in which thin printed, low-voltage carbon-zinc batteries are being tested and deployed.

Battery-Assisted Passive RFID
Industry analysts agree that RFID delivers business value and is here to stay. Closed-loop RFID systems have proven exceptionally valuable in asset management, inventory control, product and people tracking and disaster and event management. VDC Research Group recently predicted that RFID revenues in 2009 are on track to grow nearly 10 percent over 2008 levels.

Aiding this growth is battery-assisted passive (BAP) RFID, sometimes termed semi-passive. BAP RFID can extend read ranges and improve RFID tag readability, especially in applications involving RFID-unfriendly materials, such as liquids and metals or applications in which individual tagged items are densely packed or stacked. Well-designed BAP RFID systems can also provide extended memory capabilities, as well as increased security and data protection.

BAP RFID is proving valuable in numerous applications because it can significantly extend the capabilities of passive RFID at a fraction of the cost and complexity required to implement high-end active RFID and real-time location systems. Battery-assisted passive RFID applications and benefits include:
• Asset tracking of goods, materials or work-in-process in manufacturing plants, warehouses and distribution centers to improve accuracy, streamline workflow and reduce costs by increasing visibility and minimizing waste.

• Inventory management in warehouses and distribution centers, which eliminates the need to perform time and labor intensive physical counts.

• Stock and inventory management in retail stores through the use of “smart shelf” or “smart case” systems, which provides instant visibility of stock on hand, minimizes overstocks and out-of-stocks.

Sealed Air Corp.’TurboTag RFID time and temperature monitoring system uses an RF-enabled sensor device and battery-powered “smart” card to ensure food and beverage cold chain compliance.

RF-Linked Sensor and Data Logging Systems
Radio frequency-enabled time and temperature monitoring systems are becoming increasingly popular in the food industry as a way to ensure consumer safety, maintain quality control and reduce waste. Meat, poultry, seafood, produce, dairy and frozen food processors and distributors can derive measurable value from such systems.

Sealed Air Corp. designed its TurboTag RFID time and temperature monitoring system that uses a sensor probe and battery-powered “smart” card to ensure cold chain compliance. The system uses Blue Spark ST printed batteries to support the silicon chip’s data logging functionality. The portable TurboTag system is being used to track temperatures across the entire supply chain, from point of origin to points of delivery.

RFID sensor systems are also useful for shippers and distributors of temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals, biologicals and chemical products. The pharmaceutical industry is taking a closer look at temperature data loggers as an increasing number of new drugs being developed require strict temperature control to maintain their efficacy.

Other types of sensor systems could be designed to monitor ambient humidity, shock or vibration. In all of these applications, standard low-voltage, carbon-zinc batteries can be embedded within a “smart card” or smart label form factor to provide the power boost required for time-phased monitoring and autonomous data logging systems. The value proposition of real-time sensor systems is high because they offer portability, accuracy and ease of operation while providing important information.

Smart Packaging, Retail Display Merchandisers
Printed carbon-zinc batteries are well suited to a wide range of smart packaging applications and point-of-purchase merchandising displays because the batteries and other electronics can often be printed simultaneously with the packages or displays. According to NanoMarkets, a Virginia-based industry analyst, some niche applications for battery-powered smart packaging may include pharmaceutical compliance packaging, case and pallet freshness monitoring devices, and tamper-proof courier packages. Printed batteries can also be used to power an LED or voice activation device in interactive store merchandisers to drive sales and increase profits by engaging consumer attention.

Powered or “Smart” Cards
There are an estimated four billion or “smart cards”, cards containing ICs or chips, being shipped annually worldwide. Trends driving this growth are an urgent need for increased security and authentication, as well as the growing popularity of contactless payments and consumer preference for wallet-size cards integrating interactive innovations. Battery-powered cards can incorporate lighted or color-changing displays, stored value and account status information, authentication codes, and other interactive functions. Powered card applications include:
• One-time password (OTP) cards for secure Internet credit transaction, access to brokerage accounts, monetary wires, IT and other high-value security assets

• Contactless credit and debit cards

• Stored value gift cards and municipal transit cards

• Organization membership and retail loyalty cards

• Secure identification cards and badges for access control in buildings or at events

Transdermal Patches
The medical device, healthcare and cosmetics/skincare markets are already developing and launching products using thin printed batteries in the design and manufacture of iontophoretic (i.e., transdermal) patches, which can be applied directly onto the skin. The fact that printed batteries can be customized relative to size and shape makes them particularly attractive for this. The role of the battery in patch applications is to actively drive the patch’s ingredients through the dermal layer of the skin. Batteries may also be used to regulate consistent dosage of the patch’s active ingredient(s). Applications include:
• Cosmetic aids (e.g., wrinkle removers and other skin care treatments)

• Self-administered drug delivery (e.g. nicotine patches, pain relievers)

• Therapeutic wound care for humans and pets

Interactive Printed Media and Consumer Products
Another potentially profitable market is high-volume consumer novelties. Products such as musical and self-recorded greeting cards, and interactive printed media, such as books, posters, games and trading cards, can be programmed to interact with consumers via sight, sound and touch. While the cost of manufacturing is a significant factor for producers of these items, their mass market potential can number in the billions, making this impulse-driven consumer market a very attractive target for printed electronics and thin printed batteries.

Business Value Delivered
Printed electronics and thin printed batteries have enormous potential to spark the creation of a host of dynamic new products for the industrial, consumer, financial, security and healthcare markets.

As we move forward, this remarkable technology is expected to energize OEMs and electronic system designers, not only to create new products, but also to simplify existing product designs and improve their manufacturing cost structure. While still in early days, the printed electronics “revolution” is revving up to help companies streamline product design, prototyping, production and integration, so they can bring products to market faster and at lower cost than ever before.

Matt Ream is marketing manager for Blue Spark Technologies, a developer of flexible, eco-friendly proprietary power source solutions for battery-powered printed electronic systems. As an electronics engineer, Ream has twenty years of experience in high tech electronics and radio frequency identification (RFID) and has held senior positions in engineering, product research and development and marketing.

For more information visit www.bluesparktechnologies.com.