Battery supplier Nichicon America, Schaumburg, Ill., has won a top gold award in the 2022 Leap Awards for its lithium-titanate battery.

The LEAP Awards celebrates the most innovative and forward-thinking products serving the design engineering space. Nichicon won in the power electronics category which covers power supplies, transistors and any other power electronic circuits, components or assemblies used in power electronics, including battery and battery management.

The winning entry was the Nichicon “SLB” series, a family of “Small Li-Ion Rechargeable Batteries” suitable for IoT and wearable applications. However, the
SLB series is not a conventional Lithium-Ion battery as it utilizes lithium-titanate (LTO) for the negative electrodes, providing the following benefits:

(1) Long life of more than 25,000 charge/discharge cycles
(2) High-density input/output approaching electric double-layer capacitors (EDLCs/Supercapacitors)
(3) Capable of charging at a low rate using energy harvesting
(4) Low-temperature characteristics enabling operation as low as -30
(5) Compared to conventional Lithium-Ion batteries, the SLB series has a very low risk of explosion or ignition even when used under harsh conditions

Another unique feature of the “SLB” series is the ability to mount directly to the PCB without needing a special carrier, unlike typical lithium-ion batteries.

The judges commented: “These Lithium-Ion batteries are feature packed. The low risk of ignition and wide operating temperature range make them a desirable board level choice.”

The SLB series of products are available in the following values:
Part Number Size Voltage Nominal Capacity
SLB03070LR35 3x7mm 2.4V 0.35mAh
SLB03090LR80 3.3x9mm 2.4V 0.8mAh
SLB04255L040 4.0×25.5mm 2.4V 4.0mAh
SLB08115L140 8.0×11.5mm 2.4V 14.0mAh
SLB12400L151 12.5x40mm 2.4V 150mAh