The new flexible lithium-ion battery. Source: Panasonic.
The Japanese company Panasonic Corporation announced that it has developed a flexible lithium-ion battery with a thickness of only 0.55mm, or about 0.022 inches.
Card devices, which are often carried in wallets or pockets, require internal components that can withstand bending and twisting. Slim lithium-ion batteries are used in such devices, but these batteries can degrade when they are bent or twisted, resulting in shorter operating time for the devices.
According to Panasonic, the new battery can withstand this bending and twisting. When used in card devices such as smart cards and card keys that work on batteries, as well as body worn devices and smart clothing, this battery can retain its characteristics.
The battery has demonstrated that it retains its characteristics during bending and twisting tests. This battery can maintain more than 99% of its initial capacity after 1,000 bends with a radius of 25mm, or after twisted 1,000 times with an angle ±25°/100mm, thanks to a newly developed laminated outer layer and newly developed internal structure.
Current lithium-ion batteries, such as prismatic or pouch batteries, are neither bendable nor twistable. Repeated bending of a rechargeable battery can cause a big impact on the charge and discharge cycle and life of a battery. The new battery has shown 80% initial capacity retention based on the company’s unique testing of 1,000 times of charge and discharge cycle following either 1,000 times of bending or 1,000 times of twisting.
