Powering the Smallest Devices

Every year, electronics get smaller, smarter, and more connected. Sensors shrink to the size of a grain of rice, medical implants become thinner, and billions of IoT nodes are expected to run for years without maintenance. Yet one component has struggled to keep pace: the battery. Conventional coin cells and pouch cells are too bulky, contain liquid electrolytes, and cannot be built directly onto a chip. Thin-film solid-state microbatteries change that.

Our Technology Niche

A thin-film microbattery is built layer by layer, much like a semiconductor device: a current collector, a cathode such as LiCoO₂, a solid electrolyte such as LiPON, and a lithium or silicon-based anode, each only a few microns thick or less. Because there is no liquid, the cell is intrinsically safe, tolerates a wide temperature range, offers long cycle life, and can be patterned onto silicon, glass, ceramic, or flexible substrates.

This is where Solitecs stands out. Microbattery performance is decided by thin-film quality: target purity, film stoichiometry, interface control, and deposition process. Our roots in coating materials and PVD, CVD, and ALD technologies, inherited from Coatecs, let us support customers across the whole chain, from cathode and electrolyte sputtering targets, lithium-related materials, and substrates, to process discussion, equipment matching, and prototype development with our university and industrial partners.

Where the Technology Is Heading

The next generation of microbatteries is moving toward higher energy density through 3D architectures and thicker, higher-capacity electrodes; toward on-chip and in-package integration with sensors, MCUs, and energy harvesters; toward reflow-solderable cells that survive standard SMT assembly; and toward flexible, biocompatible formats for wearables and medical devices. ALD-enabled conformal coatings and new solid electrolytes are key enablers of these advances.

Market Outlook

Demand is driven by applications where size, safety, and lifetime matter more than raw capacity: IoT and wireless sensor nodes, smart cards and RFID tags, wearables and hearables, implantable and disposable medical devices, real-time clock and memory backup, and energy-harvesting systems. As these markets grow and as regulations push away from disposable primary cells, solid-state microbatteries are expected to move from niche products into mainstream electronic design.

Whether you are exploring your first thin-film cell or scaling a process toward pilot production, Solitecs is ready to help with materials, technical discussion, and project support.