By Raj Talluri, President and CEO of Enovix
When I approach a new challenge, I start with the end user in mind. I always ask: What problems do our end users face, how can our technology help them solve those problems, and, in the big picture, how can our technology help make peoples’ lives better and easier?
Consumer electronics — from wearables and other IoT devices to mobile phones and tablets — are nearly ubiquitous today. Worldwide, there are more than 6.5 billion smartphone subscriptions alone. We’ve made tremendous advances over the years when it comes to increasing the processing power, memory and storage that allow consumers to connect their mobile devices to 5G networks and enjoy the functionality and conveniences they bring, such as ordering food, banking, finding a ride or streaming a 4K video from virtually anywhere. What most consumers don’t realize, however, is that, due to the lack of advancements in battery technology and capacity, they still aren’t able to get the most out of those devices and, as a result, our experiences are being held back.
What Good Are Specs if the Battery Can’t Support Them?
I come from the world of “what’s next and how do we innovate faster” to develop components that will enable the next greatest consumer device. At TI, Qualcomm and Micron we were laser focused on developing and producing components to enable experiences we believed consumers would want three and four years down the road. But what good is all of this computing horsepower and R&D spend if the battery power can’t keep up with other components’ advancements?
You can maximize your phone’s display brightness, stream video, run 5G or continuously tap your smartwatch screen so you can see the time, but all of these things drain the battery. The great secret is we really never experience the full capability of today’s latest mobile devices. For example, the only time we run a smartphone at full speed is when we’re benchmarking. I believe most of the advanced and connected consumer electronics out there are substantially compromised because of limited battery capacity. Features are regulated and put in “power down mode” to conserve energy. In effect, you’re not getting the most out of what you bought.
I think that’s a great disservice to the end user and it’s what I aim to fix.
Disrupting the Battery Industry
The founders of Enovix did a phenomenal job disrupting the Li-ion battery industry (take a look at our website to see how we’re different). Li-ion batteries power nearly all mobile devices today. Unfortunately, increases in Li-ion battery energy density have been meager year over year — about 4% annually from 1991 to 2022[i]. Now, compare that to other components in mobile devices, such as CPU clock speeds, storage, mobile phone camera resolution and cellular network speed, and we can see how much faster other components have improved:
· In 2012, Qualcomm’s early Snapdragon chipsets are reported to have a 1GHz clock speed with a single-core CPU design. Today, it’s been published that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which is multi-core, includes: 1x Cortex-X3 @ 3.19GHz, 2x Cortex-A710 @ 2.8GHz, 2x Cortex-A715 @ 2.8GHz and 4x Cortex-A510 @ 2GHz. From 1GHz to 3.19GHz over 11 years, we saw about an 11% average annual increase.
· Apple released its 8GB iPhone version in 2007. In 2021, Apple announced its iPhone 13 Pro had an option of 1TB of storage. Over 14 years, that’s about a 41% average annual increase.
· The camera sensors in mobile phones have improved substantially over the last 20+ years. In 2000, we saw one of the first .3-megapixel cameras in a phone. By comparison, today you can purchase a smartphone with stated resolutions of up to 200-megapixels — a 33% average annual increase.
· Finally, let’s look at cellular network advancements. A 2G network, launched in 1991, gave us basic smartphone capability (averaging about 0.2 Mbps) and introduced phones like the Nokia 3210 “candy bar phone.” In 2019, 5G was launched in South Korea — with an average download speed of about 169.46 Mbps. That’s an average annual increase of 27%.
The battery has clearly held back our mobile experiences — and it’s a problem I’m excited to help solve. Enovix has developed a next-generation battery that is designed to power the mobile technologies of the future. Imagine being able to use your smartphone to its full potential. Our batteries have an increased capacity of up to double compared to many batteries in leading commercial consumer devices in the market today. And we’re just getting started.
The Challenge and Opportunity Ahead
The challenge we’re taking head-on at Enovix this year and next, is scaling manufacturing of our batteries. It is one of the greatest challenges I’ve taken on in my nearly 30-year career in technology. While keeping the customer and end user firmly in our sights, I’m also thinking about the operational challenges of balancing our investment in capacity with our demand profile to scale production of a next-generation, high energy density battery. Enovix batteries, and the way we manufacture them, are ground-breaking and I couldn’t be more excited and humbled to lead the company into this next phase.
I’m passionate about the future of mobile technology and know a better battery can enable features and functionality that we can’t even imagine today (even with my crystal ball). I’ve been fortunate to be in this space for a long time, and I’m more optimistic than ever to play a role in ensuring consumers get the most out of their devices.
You can follow our progress on www.enovix.com/scale.
[i] 4% is calculated from 1991–2022 for both cylindrical and prismatic/pouch cells with capacities from 2,000–5,000 mAh.
