Could These New Flex Batteries Create Better Wearables?

A young Maryland company has zinc-carbon flexible batteries in development that are safer next to the skin.

Chris Newmarker

Safe, quality batteries are one of the major design challenges facing developers of mobile health sensors. FlexEl, which develops batteries for specific applications, has flexible batteries in development that it is touting as safer. 

The batteries use a zinc-carbon chemical system versus the lithium ion and alkaline batteries more commonly used. FlexEl (College Park, MD) says it already has relationships with several Fortune 500 companies that are interested in its application-specific battery development services. FlexEl has also developed microbatteries with electrode dimensions on the order of a human hair and a high power density battery in a smaller size. 

Such innovations are have been possible through a stage gated battery development approach that mitigates risk for customers, FlexEl's senior engineer Vidyu Challa, PhD, said Thursday at MD&M Philadelphia.

FlexEl is a University of Maryland spinoff, and is moving into a new R&D and manufacturing facility this fall, in order to build  production capacity  for its existing customers.  The company is "chemistry and packaging agnostic" and seeks to design, develop and scale batteries for companies that have unique biocompatibility, power density, size or shape requirements. 

Watch the video below of Challa explaining FlexEl's flexible battery technology:

Chris Newmarker is senior editor of Qmed and MPMN. Follow him on Twitter at @newmarker.

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