ION Storage Systems (ION), a Maryland-based manufacturer of safe, high energy density, fast charging solid-state batteries (SSB), announced a major milestone on the path to commercialization by achieving 800 cycles in its SSB cells.

ION’s cell cycles without compression or volume change, traditionally a major impediment to SSB adoption. This news comes on the heels of the company’s announcement in early 2024 that ION’s is the first anodeless SSB to achieve 125 cycles without pressure, the commissioning of its $30-million manufacturing facility and its award of $20 million by ARPA-E for the development of SSBs for the Electric Vehicle (EV) industry.

ION’s battery cycle life already meets broad requirements for a variety of defense and public safety applications, and with this announcement, ION’s battery cells are now far exceeding the cycle life requirements for the more than $24-billion consumer electronics battery market inclusive of devices from IoT and wearables to mobile phones and laptops.

The stable cycling that we’ve repeatedly observed in our R&D cells is the culmination of key innovations by ION’s ceramic scientists and battery scientists over the past several years. The combination of our next-generation ceramic electrolyte and unique cell architecture has enabled the only known anodeless, compressionless, lithium-metal battery that can cycle with this level of stability at 25°C. ION has built a world-class team of scientists, engineers, and operations staff who are rapidly solving technical challenges to bring this technology to a commercially relevant scale.

—Dr. Nicholas Hudak, Director of Cell R&D at ION

I’m extremely proud of this latest accomplishment. It is unprecedented for an anodeless cell to reach this kind of cycle life without compression. ION has now produced a cell with performance that’s compelling to replace a huge portion of the lithium-ion market. Next up is building it into commercial format, multilayer cells off our pilot line and doing so with high repeatability to put in customers’ hands. Early glimpses of our larger format cells are looking just as promising.

—Dr. Greg Hitz, ION’s CTO

Born out of the University of Maryland’s incubator, ION’s SSB platform is the first to achieve this milestone with an anodeless design without compression, representing a key step for ION’s goal of releasing its first-generation product in late 2024 to commercial customers.

ION’s patented solid-state anodeless technology provides a completely safe and more powerful alternative to traditional lithium-ion batteries and eliminates the need for less sustainable materials such as graphite with the use of a new 3-D ceramic structure.

ION’s SSB requires no compression, swell budget, extensive cooling system or heavy fire barriers. Combined with the ability to accommodate existing and future cathode technologies, ION’s SSB platform provides simple and cost-effective manufacturing at scale.

ION’s simple drop-in replacement design for Li-Ion batteries can greatly accelerate the adoption of ION’s SSB in applications including consumer electronics, medical devices, electric vehicles, grid storage, and aerospace & defense.