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“Breaking Free from Coin Cells”: Ensurge Advances Solid-State Medical Batteries“Breaking Free from Coin Cells”: Ensurge Advances Solid-State Medical Batteries

Ensurge’s Arvind Kamath discusses the advantages of technology in this interview ahead of the company’s presentation at the Medical Battery Conference in Anaheim.

Maria Guerra, Senior Editor-Battery Technology

February 4, 2025

3 Min Read
Solid-state batteries and medical devices
Rows of button cell lithium battery.Igor Nikushin/iStock / Getty Images Plus

Solid-state batteries are poised to revolutionize implantable and wearable medical devices by offering higher energy density, enhanced safety, and ultra-thin form factors. Unlike conventional lithium-ion batteries, solid-state alternatives eliminate liquid electrolytes, reducing the risk of leakage and improving reliability—critical factors for medical applications. Their compact and customizable design has the potential to enable seamless integration into next-generation health monitoring devices, hearables, and even implantable sensors, supporting advancements in remote patient monitoring and personalized medicine.

To explore these innovations further, Battery Technology spoke with Arvind Kamath, Executive Vice President of Technology Development at Ensurge. In this Q&A, Kamath shares insights into Ensurge’s approach to overcoming manufacturing challenges, the advantages of its solid-state lithium battery architecture, and how the company is positioning itself to meet the growing demand for high-performance microbatteries in the medical sector.

How does Ensurge's solid-state technology address implantable or wearable medical devices' unique energy and size constraints?

Arvind Kamath, Executive VP of Technology Development: Ensurge’s solid-state lithium battery architecture is designed to maximize energy content compared to lithium-ion and other alternative batteries while minimizing the space taken up by traditional packaging and substrate materials. This approach leads to the best-in-class energy density in smaller batteries. Other key features include:

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  • The choice of well-proven battery materials, including Lithium Cobalt Oxide (LCO) and  Lithium Phosphorus Oxynitride (LiPON) operating at 3.9V using an anodeless architecture with numerous performance and manufacturing benefits.

  • A non-liquid chemistry that is safer than traditional alternatives and minimizes packaging thicknesses.

  • An ultrathin 10µm stainless steel substrate onto which the battery elements are deposited using a scalable, high-throughput manufacturing process.

  • Customizable, compact XYZ (cuboidal) dimensions compatible with Surface Mount Technology (SMT) to simplify the battery’s integration into end products. This approach also allows designers to break free from the traditional coin cell or pouch form factors that have limited wearable and hearable product innovation. 

Can you elaborate on the manufacturing challenges of solid-state micro-batteries and how Ensurge has innovated to overcome them?

Kamath: Ensurge combined different aspects of its expertise in semiconductors, printed electronics, and roll-to-roll manufacturing to solve various challenges. A few key examples are:

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  • By design, eliminating all wet lithography and processing also eliminates water usage and associated wet waste.

  • Manufacturing on ultrathin roll-to-roll 10µm stainless steel substrates improves volumetric energy density and manufacturing efficiency, scalability, throughput, and cost. Combined with innovative cell-stacking and packaging techniques, this manufacturing approach delivers high performance, customizable form factors and the ability to provision contacts for direct PCB connection..

  • Use of additive printing and lasers significantly reduces the number of manufacturing steps that are required and allows for customization.  

What trends do you see in adopting solid-state micro-batteries in the medical sector, and how is Ensurge positioned to meet this growing demand?

Kamath: This sector needs batteries with higher energy density, improved safety, and longer cycle lifetimes, as well as customizable form factors to support the development of new types of smaller and more comfortable health and fitness monitoring wearables and hearables- all of which play to our technology’s advantages.

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In addition, we plan to maintain these advantages while developing (patent pending) curved and round form factors that are enabled by thin stainless steel substrates and innovative cell-stacking and packaging. 

How do these batteries support advancements in next-generation medical applications, such as remote monitoring and personalized medicine?

Kamath: We see significant interest in these features driven by the need for high-VED (Volumetric Energy Density), fast-charging medical and fitness wearables, and hearables that can support Bluetooth wireless communication and health sensor monitoring. Ensurge’s battery technology solves these challenges. Fast charging is augmented with the ability to provide a much higher current draw when needed for transmitting wireless signals to another electronic device. The batteries’ increased energy density enables product developers to either lengthen device life between charges or free up space on their products’ PCBs for additional value-added functions.

About the Author

Maria Guerra

Senior Editor-Battery Technology, Informa Markets Engineering

Battery Technology Senior Editor Maria L. Guerra is an electrical engineer with a background in Oil & Gas consulting and experience as a Power/Analog Editor for Electronic Design.  Maria graduated from NYU Tandon School of Engineering with a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (MSEE). She combines her technical expertise with her knack for writing. 

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