Printable Battery Technology

Lee Yang Sheng Lim Chau Hwee Alwyn

Tay Wei Yi

Scope Wearable electronics market trend

Imprint Energy’s Business Model

Analysis of Business Model

Recommendations

Conclusion

Wearable electronics market trend

Wearable electronics

Wearable electronics

Coin cells may be Sufficient for Watches, but not for Wearable Electronics!

Printable Battery Imprint Energy

Founded in 2010

Develop zinc-based rechargeable battery technology (ZincPoly™)

New applications and value propositions for printable batteries

Value propositions for wearable electronics Ultra thin

Flexible

Recyclable

Easy to manufacture

Rechargeable

Thinner batteries are needed for new applications

Ultra thin

0.01

0.1

1

10

Th

ick

nes

s o

f B

atte

ry

(mm

)

Phones, laptops

Calculator, Watches

RFID smart card, Electronic paper Conformal electronics,

Wearable electronics

Value Proposition Ease of manufacture

Low packaging required

Affordable

Dispenser printing system:

5‐300μm size factors

Ambient temperature process

Low waste

Fast, scalable, economical

Continuous assembly processing

Printing Technology

Value Proposition Rechargeability

Other zinc-based printable batteries are non-rechargeable which limits their applications

Imprint Energy uses a solid gel polymer electrolyte

Thin-film and printed battery market $5.6 billion by 2015 (NanoMarkets)

Out of this, $2.5 billion will be non-lithium batteries

58.40%

46.10%

37.90% 35%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Medical Implantables MEMS, flexible paper, cosmetics and E-paper

Smart cards RFID tags

Annual Growth Rate

Customer Selection Manufacturers

DNP (Dai Nippon Printing)

Soligie

Collaborators

Thinfilm

MC10 (Bio electrionics sensors)

Wearable electronics manufacturers

Nike

Samsung

Customer Selection Gigantic wearable consumer electronics market

To exploit the design advantages of the new batteries (eg. Nike’s FuelBand and the FitBit line)

Large volume

Footwear, 13.4

Apparel, 6.3

Equipment, 1.2

Others, 0.1

Nike Revenue (in $billion) in 2012

Customer Selection • Bendable Electronics

• LG and Samsung

• Flexible phones and watches

Customer Selection

Bioelectronics

MC10

Medical patch

Digital Health

Conformal Electronics

Customer Selection • Powered smart card

• Oberthur Technologies

• Advanced security for e-banking and e-shopping

• A single card for payment, authentication and ‘on the spot’ information

• Stand-alone solution, no card reader required

Customer Selection Health products

Pills with smart sensors

Smart bra

Analysis of value proposition Zinc batteries are already present in

the market but not widely adopted

Not flexible and non-rechargeable

Competitors will erode profits to be made

Large capital needed to scale manufacturing

Competitor 1: Blue Spark Technologies Carbon-Zinc printable battery

Value proposition Cost effective

Attractive form factor

Easy integration

Green and disposable

Customer selection Battery - Assisted RFID

RF-Linked Sensors

Transdermal Patches

Powered Cards

Interactive Printed Media

Competitor 2: Rechargeable Lithium printable battery

Value proposition

Ultra thin

Environmentally friendly

Long cycle life

Customer selection

Collaboration with ST microelectronics

Strategy Canvas

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Imprint Energy

Blue Spark

Front Edge

PowerPaper

Lithium Polymer

Energy Density vs Power Density

Comparison data against competitors

Parameters Front Edge Technologies

(Lithium)

Blue Spark Technologies (Zinc-carbon)

Imprint Energy (Zinc-MnO2)

Traditional laptop battery

(Lithium)

Energy Density 100 – 150 Wh/kg 125 Wh/kg 130 Wh/kg 128 - 150 Wh/kg

Temperature Range -40 to 80 oC -18 to 55 oC -20 to 70 oC –20 to 60 °C

Battery Life (Cycles before degradation)

> 1000 ~ 25 cycles > 100 cycles 400 – 500 cycles

Fabrication Process Vacuum Deposition

SEI formation

Partially Printed Printed Vacuum Deposition

SEI formation

Safety Concerns Reactive, Non-volatile

Semi-reactive, volatile

Non-reactive, non-volatile

Reactive, Non-volatile

Analysis of value proposition Zinc batteries are already present in

the market but not widely adopted

Competitors will erode profits to be made

Large capital needed to scale manufacturing

Scope of Activity Versatile and scalable manufacturing process

Make use of a traditional technology, screen printing.

Outsource manufacturing of batteries to printing companies

To ramp up manufacturing to a large commercial scale in a few years

Will not build their own factories

Work closely with manufacturing partners

• Vertical Disintegration

Value Chain

R&D Raw material

supplier Printing

Manufacturer End product

manufacturer Distribution

and sales

Outsourced partners / Licensee

Collaborators Imprint Energy

Method of value capture Licensing

To license our technology to collaborators to produce printable batteries

Pure licensing model may lead to a slow growth

Battery sales

Mass produced batteries of standard shapes/sizes

Cost structure Low cost active materials

High volume structure to enable economies of scale

Cost Structure

Item Cost for printable battery

Material • $2.07 per Wh • $3.48 per 1400 mAh (Google Nexus One battery capacity)1

Printing / Manufacturing • 100 million batteries / printer • $25k - $800k / printer

1 Obtained from Imprint Energy 2 Obtained from http://www.isuppli.com/Teardowns/News/Pages/Google-Nexus-One-Carries-$17415-Materials-Cost-iSuppli-Teardown-Reveals.aspx

Selling price for Google Nexus One lithium ion battery 2 : $5.25 (1400mAh)

Method of strategic control Intellectual Property

Patents on solid zinc electrolyte which enable rechargeable battery

Patents on methods of manufacture

Filed provisional patent September 2010

IP Strategy

• Prove the feasibility of the innovation

Phase 1

• Push the performance of the battery

• Erect barriers to entry

Phase 2 • Extract value out of IP

Phase 3

Method of strategic control Lack of complementary assets

Sales and Marketing expertise

Distribution channels

IT infrastructure

Low market power against owners of complementary assets

Innovation value capture matrix

Core idea adapted from Teece, 1986

Recommendation Strategic control

Contracts to bind manufacturers and end products distributors

Develop more complementary assets

Contractual agreements Imprint energy holds strong IP rights

Low risk of imitation

Contracts to be designed to maximize profits from innovation

Disruptive Innovation

Prove the feasibility and value of innovation

Complementary Assets Custom designed batteries

Key components of wearable electronics

Different applications requires

Different shape/size

Different packaging

Different capacity

Complementary Assets Custom designed batteries

Key components of wearable electronics

Network effects

Virtuous cycle

Develop capabilities to further improve design of wearable electronics in the market and enhance their performance

Custom designed batteries enable

novel and innovative products

Higher demand for innovative end user

products

More products sold increases exposure

of battery

More wearable electronics

manufacturers interested

Higher revenue generated from

battery sales

Revenue pumped into R&D to

improve design

Recommendation Value Chain

Custom designed solutions to enable novel devices to launch into market

Leverage printing partners to scale rapidly without large capital investment

Continuous R&D to enhance products to improve sales

Imitate Qualcomm model:

Recommendation Value Chain

Custom designed solutions to enable novel devices to launch into market

Leverage printing partners to scale rapidly without large capital investment

Continuous R&D to enhance products to improve sales Printed and thin media

- Enabling

- Early Adopters

- Billions of devices

Conventional Batteries

- Enhancing

- Thin format progress

- Billions of devices

$250MM - $1.3 BN > $2BN

Recommendation Method of value capture

Adopt a new licensing model working with multiple partners getting upfront fee for access to design (Imitate ARM model)

Revenue from product manufacturers by offering custom designed solutions

Continue to focus on low cost high volume structure by driving capabilities of manufacturing partners

Recommendation Customer selection

Focus on new and upcoming technology industry

Health and wellness wearable products

Wireless sensor network (Internet of Things)

$2 billion market by 2021 (IDTechEx)

To be present in majority of electronic devices

Quantified Self and Smart Homes

Smart World

Recommendation Value proposition

Focus on sustainability

Continuous R&D improvement to push the boundaries of battery technology

Working with partners to enable innovation in electronics devices

Environmental Impact Assessment

"Sustainable Batteries", Assessment of Environmental Technologies for Support of Policy Deccision

New Innovative devices

Summary

Value Proposition

Thin

Rechargeable

Sustainable

Safe

Customer Selection

Large Wearable Electronics firms

Novel technologies

Wireless Sensors / Smart cities

Scope of Activities

R&D

Distribution

Sales and Marketing

Method of Value

Capture

Licensing

Customized Solutions

Strategic Control

IP Strategy

Complementary Assets

Screen Printing Process Similar to old-fashioned silk-screening where

material is deposited in a pattern by squeezing it through a mesh over a template

Obtained from http://www.hdm-stuttgart.de/international_circle/circular/issues/11_01/ICJ_04_32_wendler_huebner_krebs.pdf