April 1, 2021

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Greenville

South Carolina

United States

The US Patent and Trademark Office has issued to Soteria Battery Innovation Group (BIG) a fourth patent for critical lithium-ion battery (LIB) safety technology that eliminates the root cause of thermal runaway.  Today’s LIBs are safe, but also potentially unsafe if damaged, abused or if they contain a manufacturing defect.  These four issued US patents cover technology that changes potentially unsafe LIBs into inherently safe ones.

Soteria’s FRAND licensing business model ensures the entire industry will have access to these battery materials which can provide inherent safety in cell phones, drones, electric cars and energy storage systems.  Today, the Soteria BIG consortium has over 75 members including DuPont, Teijin, NASA, Mercedes, Bosch, Applied Materials, Motorola and others spanning the entire value chain.  Each of these members enjoys full R&D access to the technology and also receives the benefit of Soteria’s active business development team.

"The Soteria BIG consortium provides us a direct connection to high-value partners throughout the supply chain that we would otherwise may have missed," said Kamlesh Shah, Operation and Technical Director at Steinerfilm, a Soteria BIG member who is a leader in high-performance metallized films for battery current collectors. "We have projects with other material companies, cell producers, and end-users that were introduced through the consortium."

No company wants to stake its customer's safety on potentially unsafe technology – especially when it comes to components like batteries. Soteria's self-healing metallized film current collectors isolate internal short circuits due to defects or damage, protecting customers from the potential risk of thermal runaway.

Most LIB architecture includes a thin plastic separator coupled with solid metal foil current collectors. In the presence of a defect or damage, the solid metal foils deliver the battery energy to the short, which melts the separator and becomes the spark that ignites the battery on fire.

Soteria's patented technology replaces the solid foils with metallized polymer films coated with enough metal to run the battery but not enough to deliver the intense current densities that ignite the cell. The metallized films act as a fuse, burning out and isolating the short. Not only does this eliminate thermal runaway, but cells continue to function. This paradigm shift is especially valued in transportation markets where safety is critical such as drones, aerospace, and electric vehicles.  In these cases, the cells continuing to function after damage can turn otherwise catastrophic damage into a maintenance event.

In addition to the four granted US Patents covering the metallized film current collectors, Soteria has a growing portfolio of US and global patent applications.  Today’s issued patents include:
US 10854868 Lithium Storage Device with Internal Fuse
US 10763481 Lithium Storage Device with Improved Safety Architecture
US 10700339 Method of Manufacture of an Energy Storage Device Having an Internal Fuse
US 10957956 Energy Storage Device Having a Current Collector with Inherent Current Limitations

"The best thing about this technology is how well it works, protecting the cells in a variety of different situations," said Carl Hu, Soteria's co-Founder and CTO. "In addition, it is a drop-in to existing lithium-ion technology, compatible with all form factors and lithium ion chemistries."

"Soteria’s mission is to have inherently safe cells everywhere," said Brian Morin, Soteria’s other co-Founder and CEO.  "Baby monitors in our homes, delivery drones overhead and electric vehicles we ride in should all be inherently safe.  Soteria is honored to help the industry pull together to ensure that all of these devices have access to the best safety technology."

Additional information about the consortium and the Soteria technology can be found at www.soteriabig.com.  The story of the founding of the company can be found on Power Sources Online.

 

About Soteria Battery Innovation Group Inc

Soteria Battery Innovation Group Inc is an advanced technology development and licensing company that has formed a consortium to promote a light, safe and cost-effective architecture for lithium ion batteries.  Soteria BIG was founded in 2017 by Brian Morin and Carl Hu, and is headquartered in Greenville, SC.  For more information contact Amy Brinson at (864) 609-4165 or Amy.Brinson@SoteriaBIG.com or visit our website at www.soteriabig.com.