Battery Tech Breakthrough – Samsung, Garmin & Apple can get >30% battery boosts.

We have delivered samples to customers from the end of last year to the beginning of this year and have received positive feedback [Koh Joo-young, VP, Samsung SDI]

Samsung SDI recently announced its breakthrough battery, the PriMX ASB.

For readers of this site, the exciting news is these solid-state batteries are planned to be produced in small formats suitable for wearables, meaning we could soon see this technology in rings, earbuds, and watches. We might see it inside a watch as early as 2027, with initial performance gains expected to be around 30% more than current technologies— and that’s a conservative estimate. As technology advances, there could be improvements by orders of magnitude, potentially increasing capacities or battery lives by over 4 to 5 times compared to today’s standards.

What is ASB

ASB stands for All Solid State Battery. The critical property of ASBs is energy density, meaning an ASB will hold significantly more charge for the same physical size as an existing Li-ion battery. Samsung SDI’s technology likely uses solid sulphide or oxide electrolytes with a silver-carbon anode, whereas Li-ion batteries typically incorporate a liquid electrolyte. ASBs also offer the added benefit of significantly reducing the risks of heat generation, expansion, fire, and explosion. They are also more flexible and hold their charge for longer.

Regarding energy density, ASBs could eventually achieve 900Wh/L (watt-hours per litre). Currently, Li-ion batteries used in wearables, supplied by companies such as Panasonic, Samsung, and LG Chem, yield between 100 and 150Wh/L. Contrast that to the upper-end performance of existing lithium cobalt oxide (LCO) batteries of around 200Wh/L, approximately the same as the initial performance expected from solid-state batteries.

Maths Claims: The difference between 150Wh/L and 200Wh/L represents a 30% increase. A 4-5 fold increase would result in around 600Wh/L, which is still considerably lower than the potential maximum of 900Wh/L.

Progress:

We have delivered samples to customers from the end of last year to the beginning of this year and have received positive feedback [Koh Joo-young, VP, Samsung SDI]

Test production began in March 2023 at Samsung SDI’s Suwon facility. According to Business Korea, as of September 2023, its industry sources suggested that Samsung had developed a small-format battery currently being tested by wearables manufacturers. Full-scale production is anticipated for early 2027, with wearables potentially incorporating these batteries in the same year.

Take Out

This technology will likely be commercialised and available at scale in wearables by 2027, similar to the expected availability of power-efficient microLED display technology.

It seems reasonable to expect at least a doubling in battery life within a few years, possibly more. This will have two main effects: firstly, devices like Apple’s smartwatch will likely achieve multi-day battery life, and we will see an increasing number of adventure watches boasting ‘forever’ battery lives. Technology will generally become a little less bothersome, requiring less frequent charging. Perhaps batteries will have increased lifespans as they won’t degrade from unnecessarily aggressive charging.

I suspect that the recent change in case size for the Apple Watch indicates that this size will remain for the next 3-4 years. This suggests that Apple plans to incorporate the new battery and display technologies into the latest format.

For Garmin, this will mean more competition in the lower end of the fitness market, where Apple and Google (Fitbit/Samsung) will continue to offer increasingly sophisticated sports features. At the true ultra end of premium brands like Coros and Suunto, it might help them better challenge Garmin in the critical technical aspects of adventure watches.