ITRI selected for U.S. R&D 100 Awards 2009

The magazine honored the new generation battery technology for its ability to minimize the risk of internal short-circuits that lead to the common safety concern of "thermal runaway," a process that can cause batteries to overheat and even explode.

"The system begins with a polymer devised by ITRI that is blended into the battery. The polymer is responsible for the suppression of thermal heat, even in the case of puncture or other catastrophic damage," the magazine said.

Alex Peng, deputy director of ITRI's Material and Chemical Research Laboratories (MCL), said in an ITRI statement that the STOBA material is the only technology in the world that has fundamentally resolved the lithium battery safety issue.

"STOBA technology has already passed mandatory shorting and piercing experiments that are more stringent than the international safety standard," Peng said.

He will lead an MCL research team to the United States to receive the global technology award at a ceremony in Orlando, Florida, on Nov. 12.

MCL Director Jonq-min Liu said in the statement that while lithium batteries are the most important power source in today's electronic products, they remain the most unstable of electronic components.

In the past, safer lithium batteries were not required by manufacturers because there was simply no solution to the thermal runaway problem, but the safe STOBA material will help Taiwan's lithium battery industry stand out in the international arena, Liu said.

ITRI has applied for nine patents related to the STOBA technology, which not only resolves the safety problem, but also can extend a battery's high temperature recycling life by more than 20 percent, the ITRI statement said.

The Hsinchu-based research institute was named to the R&D 100 for the second year in a row, after being honored by the magazine in 2008 for its AC-LED technology.

Other recipients of the 2009 R&D 100 Awards, nicknamed by the Chicago Tribune the "Oscars of Invention, " include many big names from the United States, Japan, Canada and Russia, such as Intel, NASA, the U.S. Argonne National Laboratory, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Aside from being honored by R&D Magazine, ITRI also recently received a Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award in the Consumer Electronics category for its paper-thin flexible loudspeaker.

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