TDK Corporation is a multi-national Japanese company manufacturing electronic components, and with some 105,000 employees. The news channels were alive this morning regarding new sleek batteries by TDK with 10% greater energy density. The secret lies in ground-breaking silicon battery electrodes, according to website ISP Today. We investigate further and report back here.
Could Apple Be First for TDK’s Silicon Battery Electrodes?
It’s a definite possibility, given that Tech Central confirms TDK is already an Apple provider. In fact, its silicon battery electrodes have some credibility already, having been successfully supplied in smaller versions by Hong Kong subsidiary Amperex Technology
The smartphone battery market was already alive with innovations before the TDK announcement. Some of its competitors were stacking battery electrodes, while others were experimenting with graphite cells. The more adventurous were tinkering with sodium batteries, and fuel cells too.
TDK claims a simple switch of anode electrode material could increase phone battery density, and stretch time between charges by 10%. But Tech Central says it has reason to believe that figure could be as much as a game-changing 40%. We dedicate the rest of this post by exploring how the TDK technology might work.
How Silicon Could Boost Phone Batteries
Battery density is the amount of energy a storage device can hold, within a particular volume. Such density is critical to smartphone performance, but how would it work in practice? We found only a few clues on the TDK website, and so we looked further…
We discovered a fresh thought in a post on Live Science website. This described using silicon anodes, instead of graphite ones in lithium-ion batteries. The Live Science writer believes these would be ‘better performing and longer lasting’. What else could we learn there?
We discovered a partnership between Panasonic and Sila Nanotechnologies already making silicon battery anodes for EVs. Such anodes could store ten times more energy than graphite, although there could be mechanical stresses as they swells while charging.
We wonder what TDK and Panasonic have up their sleeves to avoid this happening to their batteries. We’ll explore this further and see what we can find out.
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Silicon Anode Batteries Hold a Key
