Applied Spectra and Polaris Battery Labs Partner to Develop Online & Inline Chemical Metrology for Advanced Battery Manufacturing Process Control

Applied Spectra,  the world leader in laser-ablation based (LA) chemical analysis technology and Polaris Battery Labs LLC (Polaris), an open-access R&D batter prototyping and fabrication facility working with leading battery technology innovation firms and manufacturers, today announced a strategic partnership to develop high value-added chemical metrology and quality-control (QC) applications based on ASI’s Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) technology that enables battery producers to dramatically improve manufacturing yields, accelerate factory ramp to baseline yield, reduce cycle times, and improve cell performance.

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Within this collaboration, Polaris will fabricate electrodes and battery cells utilizing leading-edge chemistries widely adopted in today’s production as well as those that represent next generation breakthroughs such as silicon anodes and solid-state materials. ASI will perform LA/LIBS analysis of electrode samples to generate high resolution 3D data on chemical composition, dispersion and uniformity for key battery materials and components at multiple stages in the manufacturing process. Additionally, Polaris will also perform a wide range of electrochemical testing on completed cells. Both parties will collaborate on data analysis and correlation studies among chemical, e-test and physical data, as well as work with additional partners in machine learning, chemometrics and algorithms to develop metrology/QC chemical analysis applications that can have a dramatic impact on cell manufacturers’ and electrode materials suppliers’ factory ROI.

“In working with a broad cross-section of leading technology innovators and emerging manufacturers targeting the rapidly growing BEV and utility-scale storage markets, we have seen that a lack of near real-time chemistry level data in the fabrication process makes it difficult to zero in on root causes for defects and ultimately hampers their ability to scale rapidly,” commented Doug Morris, Polaris Battery Labs CEO. “We believe that ASI’s LA/LIBS technology will be a key cornerstone of the advanced process control (APC) infrastructure that the industry must implement to realize it’s aggressive growth targets.”

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Jong Yoo, Applied Spectra CEO and President added: “Doug and the Polaris team have decades of experience in battery technology and fabrication processes as well as exposure to the full range of material and chemistry innovations. The expertise of the Polaris team will be invaluable in identifying crucial metrics needed to implement production-worthy chemistry metrology/QC for APC on the production line. We envision that future battery manufacturing facilities will implement comprehensive process control for both physical properties and chemistry and we have a roadmap to develop a full-suite of LA/LIBS chemical analysis solutions including: online/integrated sensors deployed on roll-to-roll equipment, automated inline/standalone systems for dedicated high-throughput sample analysis and the APC software capabilities to analyze and correlate metrology data with equipment monitoring and e-test data.

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