Laminar Batteries - Missing the Big Opportunity?

By Dr. Peter Harrop, Chairman, IDTechEx

Coin cells, otherwise known as button batteries, are a huge success. Whether it is for 100 million talking gift cards or 50 million car key remotes every year, the choice is coin cells. They are the favored power source for active RFID tags, hearing aids, wristwatches, calculators and a great deal besides. Even where a thinner battery is needed and footprint is not a constraint, the choice is usually coin cells not the laminar batteries made by an increasing number of businesses. Because their products can cost ten times as much as coin cells, the laminar batteries are usually having success only where the need for thinness and flexibility is extreme. An example of this is the Estee Lauder smart skin patch which delivers cosmetics through the skin using the iontophoretic effect.