Prieto Battery has Intel, others charged up

FORT COLLINS — Chemistry professor Amy Prieto was understandably stoked by Intel Capital’s funding of her novel, and energy-dense, lithium-ion battery concept, but the commercialization of her product could also pay some important dividends for the chip-making giant.

“It was a pretty incredible event — something I’ve never been a part of in the business world,” said Prieto about the Intel Capital Global Summit in San Diego last week, in which her firm and 10 other companies were funded to the tune of $22 million. “Now we have this big strategic investor that has faith in us. It’s really an amazing tipping point.”

Prieto Battery — largely staffed by experts from Colorado State University, such as Prieto — has designed a 3D lithium-ion battery, which may ultimately increase energy density an order of magnitude over contemporary designs, while at the same time decreasing environmental hazards associated with its manufacture. To Intel, it’s an extremely useful design, in that its energy density is extremely effective in small forms, and forms that can be modified for use in evolving wearable commodities and other Internet of Things (IOT) configurations.

That’s an important element for Intel, which controls the PC and server markets through the absolute processing power — especially power per watt — of its chips, but pretty much missed the boat in the low-power processors that power cell phones. While Intel has made great inroads in producing lower-power processors, a more lively battery could be a powerful ally in these emerging markets.

“Prieto’s thoughtful and creative approach to battery innovation is attractive to Intel as we focus on designing and building essential technologies that serve to advance the world’s computing devices. This is particularly true for wearable devices, where a conformal battery with high energy density is highly attractive,” said Jerry Bautista, vice president in the New Technology Group and general manager of the New Business Group at Intel, in a prepared statement. “Our goal is to help incubate and accelerate Prieto’s technology into early product implementation that will provide significant market advantage to several of our business units.”

Prieto said she believes the 3D battery design could ultimately serve larger forms, such as car batteries and wind or solar farms, but the near-term commercialization of the product will be in small forms, such as IOT and mobile markets. Intel will have first crack at using the product in computerized setting.

Conventional battery surfaces, whether flat like a mobile-phone battery or rolled like a flashlight battery, are essentially two-dimensional surface connections, which limit the direction and speed at which energy can flow. Prieto’s design uses a meshed copper substrate, somewhat like a sponge, for the anode, cathode and separator sections, which are then coated with the active chemicals, vastly increasing the surface area available for charging and energy transfer.

Each piece of the battery is unique, but none more so than the separation layer, which is usually a liquid in a conventional battery, but is a solid polymer coated on the copper substrate in the Prieto design.

“Because conventional batteries have a lot of liquid, they require a great deal of packaging (to prevent damage and leaking),” Prieto said. “But we can do with less than a millimeter in thickness. Our process is very scalable. We can make a battery to fit whatever forms are required.”

The 3D element is the principal innovation that allows for greater energy density in the product, Prieto said, but creating processes that are both environmentally friendly and less expensive than conventional methods are also at the top of the company objectives.

Both the anode and separator elements are coated by electroplating, which are water-based processes. According to company information, that equipment is less expensive and more scalable than many conventional processes, and the electroplating baths are stable for months at a time, further reducing expenses.

Katie Hoffner, senior vice president of strategy at Prieto, said the 3D anode design may be on the market as early as next year, while the company hopes to have a all-Prieto battery in the market by 2017. Intel is not releasing details on the amount of its funding, but will be releasing funds as the Fort Collins company reaches set goals.

“Initially, we had Series A funding of $7 million,” Hoffner said, “We still have an open Series B funding, and we’re looking to secure another $3 million.”

Prieto said the business end of this process has been eye-opening, but has largely remained the method to fund the ongoing research and product realization.

“I never envisioned starting a company, but it was the way to bring an idea to the marketplace,” said Prieto, who also serves as company CEO. But “inventing new processes and new material is not a linear process — it takes a lot of time.”

However, she said her team of chemists, some of whom were her grad students, have created an incredible synergy at the company.

“I wouldn’t have envisioned how complicated it would become, but (with the team) the sum is greater than the parts. There’s been a lot of testing and a lot of brainstorming.”

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