Sakti3, a Michigan-based battery company, claims to have created new technology that will double battery life compared to today’s lithium ion batteries.
Sakti3’s approach is entirely different from standard batteries. First, the company uses a solid state material, rather than a liquid electrolyte. Second, it manufactures them using a process called thin-film deposition. The process has previously been reserved for creating things such as microchips and flat-panel displays. Solid state batteries already exist, but they are expensive to make. Sakti3’s breakthrough is the manufacturing process, which uses existing techniques and can be ramped up to scale quickly.
Scale production is necessary to bring the cost down. Sakti3’s technology is impressive enough that it recently won $15 million in funding from Dyson, the maker of vacuums. James Dyson, founder of Dyson, believes the new battery technology will be powering his company’s vacuums within a few years.
The technology can be used to create batteries for just about anything, however, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, and much more. Sakti3 is run by former University of Michigan engineering professor Ann Marie Sastry.
