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Addionics has developed a novel manufacturing process named smart 3D electrodes, which improves rechargeable batteries’ performance by redesigning their architecture. According to the company, the new technology enables higher capacity and safety, lower charging time and cost, and a longer lifetime.

The company’s 3D fabrication process differs from currently used architectures in how the battery’s collector is made. Today, most collectors are made with 2D metal foils — a technology that has remained unchanged in the last 30 years.

“While everyone is using conventional 2D 100% dense metal foils, at Addionics, we are replacing this component with a 3D metal structure that can load more active materials, increase the energy density, reduce the internal resistance, and provide better mechanical adhesion and thermal stability,” said Moshiel Biton, CEO of Addionics in an interview with EE Times. 

Addionics is an English company with subsidiaries in Israel, the United States, and Germany. After raising $40 million in funds to develop its smart 3D architecture, the company is moving towards manufacturing. The transition from R&D to production began with the opening of a new facility in Tel Aviv, the pilot line for producing the Smart 3D Electrodes components.

The initial capacity will be 1kWh, but will be increased to 1MWh in the future and aims to reach 1GWh by 2025.

Next generation of batteries

Electrification is happening everywhere. Accelerating EV production and acceptance and implementing technology for 100% renewable energy can produce a more sustainable future. Better, cheaper, and safer batteries will enable these initiatives to scale. Billion-dollar investments in battery chemistry have created next-generation batteries over the previous few decades. Performance, affordability, and safety have improved, but more is needed to satisfy the expected exponential surge in battery demand.

The rechargeable battery business has mostly focused on battery materials, while cell architecture and design have been neglected.

New advances in battery physics and cell structure will enable the next battery revolution. This and a novel battery architecture can increase performance across many dimensions without changing battery chemistry. New battery architecture will then enable new chemistries.

Addionics’ smart 3D electrode manufacturing method uses AI. This chemistry-agnostic technology integrates new battery design into any battery worldwide using a patent-protected, scalable, and cost-effective production method. According to Biton, Addionics’ low-cost, drop-in solution for high-power, high-energy batteries has excellent potential to affect the industry and worldwide decarbonization.

The smart 3D technology

According to Biton, while the concept of a 3D electrode boosting the battery performance is not new, Addionics is the first company that has been able to develop it and cost-effectively start its commercialization and a highly scalable fashion. Figure 2 shows an Addionics battery and the different layers that compose its internal structure.

For the creation of smart 3D electrodes, Addionics has created a patented manufacturing technique based on AI. This method replaces the electrodes’ existing 2D, layered structure with a 3D structure. This solution is chemistry agnostic since it can be integrated into any battery in the world independent of its chemistry. Hence, Addionics’ technology presents a low-cost, drop-in solution that provides a high-power and high-energy battery while having enormous potential to significantly impact the industry and the worldwide effort to reduce carbon emissions. Addionics’s technology uses the same copper (anode) and aluminum (cathode) used in 99% of Li-Ion batteries. It is easily integrated into existing manufacturing lines.

Using a 3D structure, the same energy density is achieved with fewer electrode layers, resulting in direct cost savings. As shown in Figure 3, the novel technology uses a drop-in solution compatible with existing factories. It does not require any expensive integration and no new battery factories need to be built.

“This is one of the two biggest advantages of our technology. The second advantage is that any chemistry can benefit from our solution. We are ‘chemistry agnostic,’” said Biton. 

Addionics has already proven the advantages of its 3D Smart Electrodes technology with different chemistries widely used in the industry, like NMC, lithium iron phosphate (LFP), silicon, solid-state batteries, and more.

AI-powered technology

To build a smart, comprehensive solution, Addionics uses proprietary internal optimization and artificial intelligence (AI) software that integrates into the hardware of a battery. The program employs AI-based and structure optimization techniques to forecast and choose the optimum structure complying with the application requirements. By gathering and utilizing data on structure behaviors to enhance and speed up development, optimize processes, and save costs using AI simulations, this technology also aids Addionics in protecting its intellectual property.

Thermal management

The 3D structure also provides better thermal and mechanical stability performance. In a conventional 2D structure, graphite is built on top of the foil. It is a two layers structure similar to a sandwich. Compared to copper, a good conductor, graphite is almost an insulator. That means heat can not dissipate through the copper because graphite is an insulator. As a result, it can only dissipate laterally. With the Addionics structure, however, the electrode has a 3D structure, and the different materials are not separated but form a three-dimensional structure. In this case, heat dissipation occurs in all directions, making the temperature more homogeneous.

“In our case, the temperature gradient is going to be much lower. This is very important, as we can provide a stable temperature over the material, avoiding the creation of hotspots,” said Biton. 

Applications

Addionics is active in the automotive market, especially emerging technologies like electric vehicles (EVs). In terms of volume, that is the biggest and fastest-growing market.

Most car makers have announced the move to carbon-neutral zero-emission production, replacing traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles with EVs. In an electric vehicle, battery innovation is one of the areas where costs can be reduced.

“With our technology, we aim to reduce the battery’s cost by 10%. This is achieved by reducing the number of inactive elements in the battery and increasing the number of active elements. That means we can increase the energy density for the same capacity,” said Addionics’ speaker.

The vision of the company is to integrate the novel solution into any electrochemical application: any chemistry, any format, any market, and any application. That includes stationary and mobile energy storage systems, mobile devices, consumer electronics, home appliances, and other battery-operated devices.

“The target market is represented by EVs, as they need to bring innovation and meet supply chain bottlenecks and capacity. 30-40% percent of EV cost is the batteries, and copper is one of the most expensive components in the battery. In our cell, we can reduce the amount of copper by 30-40%, offering carmakers more stability on the supply chain.”

Addionics has started building in its pilot stage in Israel the components required by companies in the United States and Europe. Later, taking advantage of the Inflation Reduction ACT (IRA) incentives, Addionics plans to extend to the US, building a production site to serve the American automotive market.