Ilika announces it has received a Notice of Grant in China for its patent application supporting solid-state batteries jointly filed with Toyota Motor Company on 21 July 2011.

This Notice of Grant in China follows the successful British grant in May 2014 and the notice of Intention to Grant in Europe in March 2015 as a member of the patent families that cover Ilika's proprietary vapour deposition processes used in producing solid-state batteries directly from the basic elements. The application went to formal grant in Europe in July 2015 and Ilika has now received a Notice of Grant in China.

This particular joint filing resulted from collaborative work undertaken by Ilika and Toyota, which commenced in 2008. This patent family is one of the two earliest filings of a growing portfolio of intellectual property (IP) exemplifying Ilika's unique approach to solid-state battery production using evaporation sources. The more recent applications in the portfolio contain both jointly-owned and solely owned IP.

In January 2014, three international patent applications from the portfolio were filed under the Patent Co-operation Treaty  based upon earlier British priority applications. These were published in July 2015 and are progressing through the international patent examination process.

The scalable stacked cell architecture which Ilika can produce, enables the simple fabrication of cells over a wide range of sizes. Ilika intends initially to produce micro-battery prototypes designed for powering wireless sensors, commonly referred to as the "Internet of Things", which is a rapidly growing segment expected to create an addressable market for micro-batteries in excess of £1bn by 2017. The battery architecture will subsequently be scaled-up, using the same process but with faster fabrication rates, to produce devices suitable for the largest markets for lithium ion batteries in wearables and consumer electronics, including mobile phones.

Commenting on this latest development, Graeme Purdy, Ilika’s CEO, said: "The grant of this patent further demonstrates the strength of Ilika’s growing internationally protected IP portfolio in solid-state batteries. China has grown to be one of most globally significant markets for batteries in recent years. This patent forms part of the extensive package of know-how and expertise that Ilika intends to license to manufacturing partners.”