SBIR/STTR Award attributes
Lookin, Inc. proposes a transformative solution for a currently unmet need in lithium-ion battery (LIB) manufacturing: an in-line, real-time, non-contact, non-destructive evaluation (NDE) instrument that can be used in all roll-to-roll (R2R) manufacturing process steps of LIB electrodes, which improves manufacturing capability to deliver high power batteries with better shelf life, increased safety, lower cost, and decreased production lead-time. LIBs offer many advantages for electric vehicles, warfighters, unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned underwater vehicles, naval ships, aircrafts, and military vehicles due to their increased energy, lower weight, and longer cycle life compared to other battery solutions. However, they are still expensive and there is a growing concern of battery safety and quality as the number of LIB-powered systems increases, mainly due to the defects that are introduced during the R2R manufacturing of LIB electrodes. Previous studies have demonstrated a significant alteration in the electrochemical performance of LIBs due to the defects introduced during electrode manufacturing, diminishing the performance by aggravating cycle efficiency, lowering discharge capacity, and shortening the life span of LIBs. Current scrap rate in LIB electrode manufacturing is approximately 5-10%, causing ~250M USD annual loss for LIB manufacturers. Therefore, an efficient quality control (QC) tool for early detection of the electrode defects during the LIB manufacturing is urgently needed. Lookin’s proposed QC solution employs terahertz radiation for non-destructive QC. Terahertz waves offer unique functionalities for QC of battery electrodes. They can penetrate through electrode coatings and provide 3D images of the battery electrodes. Despite these great promises, the low sensitivity and scanning speed of existing terahertz scanners have prevented their deployment. Lookin’s breakthrough terahertz scanner technology addresses the limitations of existing terahertz scanners by providing 1000- times higher sensitivity and scanning speed compared to the state-of-the art, through a patented terahertz transceiver technology pioneered by Lookin’s founders. By enabling high-throughput and high-accuracy detection of defects in battery electrodes at early stages of manufacturing, our proposed QC instrument would be an indispensable tool for LIB manufacturers and would help them to significantly reduce their fabrication cost by reducing the scrap rate of battery electrodes and increase the LIB availability and safety. During the Phase I program, Lookin will work with the University of California, Los Angeles and University of California, Irvine to conduct feasibility studies in laboratory on LIB electrodes to assess the capabilities of our terahertz scanners for LIB electrode QC. Lookin will build a laboratory prototype terahertz scanner, use it to analyze various healthy, defective, and recycled LIB electrode samples, and compare the findings with those obtained by other QC techniques. By the end of the program, our team will test the feasibility of the proposed QC instrument and determine the required parameters of a filed prototype terahertz scanner that can be used in R2R LIB manufacturing facilities for QC. During the Phase II program, Lookin plans to develop the field prototype terahertz scanner and install it in R2R manufacturing facilities of several LIB manufacturers to test the performance of the terahertz scanner in industrial settings. In addition, by collecting a large dataset from these experiments, Lookin will improve the accuracy of its postprocessing algorithms using machine learning and statistical modeling. By enabling in-line detection of LIB electrode defects during production, Lookin’s terahertz scanners can be an invaluable instrument for LIB manufacturers.
