Ilika announces that two of its British patent applications, jointly filed with Toyota Motor Company on 21st July 2011, were formally granted on 23rd April 2014.

These two patents cover the vapour deposition processes used in producing solid state batteries directly from the elements. They therefore represent a key part of the family of patents and pending applications that cover the complete methodology for producing stacked solid-state cell batteries, a world first and key technological breakthrough on the road to commercial solidstate devices, announced by the Company on 9th January 2014. These particular joint filings resulted from collaborative work undertaken by Ilika and Toyota, which commenced in 2008.

British priority filing for these patents were made and Patent Cooperation Treaty (“PCT”) international applications based upon these priority applications then filed 12 months later which have since progressed to national filings in other important geographical jurisdictions such as Japan, China, the USA and Europe. These two patents are the 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.

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 microbatteries 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 consumer electronics, including mobile phones.

Commenting on this latest development, Graeme Purdy, Ilika CEO, said ; "This news supports Ilika’s ongoing customer engagements with OEM’s in the sensor, consumer electronics and automotive sectors across three continents. In addition, it is a useful input into current discussions with fabricators of manufacturing equipment who are interested in applying Ilika’s IP to their technology offerings."