Lithium Technology Unveils 10-Hour Battery

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January 22, 1999 (4:00 PM EST)

By Andy Patrizio,

Frequent fliers may be happy to know there will soon be a battery that can last for the entire length of a flight from San Francisco to London.

Lithium Technology announced on Thursday a prototype Lithium Ion battery with 90 watt hours, which can provide a laptop with up to 10 hours of non-intensive use, such as heavy access of the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive.

The lithium-ion polymer battery uses fiber-web substrates instead of the metal tubes with liquid inside, the traditional design of battery technology. Battery cells are laminated onto a thin film that's pliable, so the battery can be bent, twisted, or shaped in any design the OEM wants to get the battery into the case.

This will allow for more flexibility in case design because OEMs won't be limited to the square battery design of the past, said David J. Cade, president of Lithium Technology. Some OEMs will retrofit the new battery into existing battery outlets, but forward-looking ones will redesign the whole laptop, he said.

"You need a different mindset," he said. "It's not a fat battery pack that slides into a space, which is what they've been. This is a whole different technology which allows you to make it any size, as fat as you want it or as thin as you want it."

The battery will also be significantly lighter than standard Lithium-Ion batteries -- at least half the weight of existing batteries, said Cade. The larger the battery, the greater the corresponding reduction in weight.

Cell phone batteries, which Lithium Technologies is also targeting as a potential market, won't see as much of a weight drop because they are so small to begin with.

Pricing has not been determined because the polymer batteries are still in beta test and will be for most of 1999, with commercial production set for 2000. But Cade said the price will be only a 10 percent to 20 percent premium over the current price of Lithium-Ion batteries.

That five-fold increase in battery life for a marginal price increase should be welcome news to frequent travelers, who have made a second battery the most popular accessory purchased for laptops, said Theresa Barry Nozick, industry analyst with Mobile Insights.

This jump in battery life is also long overdue, she said. Power management has gotten better, but the laptop's gas tank, the battery, remains the same size.

"Because we're moving into thin and light notebooks, there isn't as much room for these batteries," she said. "So, batteries have to get smaller, and battery life has not improved on notebooks in many years."