Global patent development trend of power lithium-ion battery

1. Technology scale and trend

Figure 1 shows the annual distribution of international patents for power lithium-ion batteries. Considering that it generally takes up to 1 year or even 3 years from patent application to publication, the number of annual patent applications began to be distorted in 2013, so the patent analysis year ended in 2012. As can be seen from Figure 1, the development trend of global patent application and disclosure is consistent (solid line and dotted line), and it has gone through the following three stages.

(1) The infancy of technology (early 1970s to mid-1990s)

In the 1970s, MS Whittingham of Exxon used titanium sulfide as the positive electrode material and metallic lithium as the negative electrode material to make the first lithium-ion battery. Before 1995, the number of patent applications per year was only a few.

(2) Steady growth period (mid 1990s to early 21st century)

During this period, the number of global patent applications grew steadily, with Japan and the United States taking the lead in applications and R&D. Among them, in 1992, Sony Corporation of Japan invented a lithium-ion battery with carbon material as the negative electrode and lithium-containing compound as the positive electrode. During the charging and discharging process, there is no metal lithium, only lithium ions. This is a lithium-ion battery. Subsequently, lithium-ion batteries revolutionized the face of consumer electronics. In 1996, Padhi and Goodenough found that phosphates with an olivine structure, such as lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4), are safer than traditional cathode materials, especially high temperature resistance, and their overcharge resistance far exceeds that of traditional lithium-ion battery materials. Therefore, it has become the current mainstream lithium-ion battery cathode material for high current discharge.

(3) Rapid growth period (early 21st century to present)

Global filings grew rapidly during this period. The number of patent applications in Germany, South Korea and China increased rapidly. Research and development hotspots involve a wide range of upstream raw materials such as electrodes, electrolytes (electrolytes), separators, etc. in the lithium-ion battery industry, and midstream products such as battery cells, battery packs, and downstream products. Applications in electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles.

2. Technology and People Trends

Figure 2 and Figure 3 respectively show the area chart of the development trend of power lithium-ion battery technology and personnel, in which the horizontal grid represents the original, and the dot grid represents the newly added. It can be seen that with the rapid development of power-type lithium-ion battery technology, the technology is now accumulating, and new technologies have begun to emerge rapidly, and new researchers continue to join, indicating that a lot of manpower and material resources have been invested in the field of power-type potassium-ion battery technology, and this situation has continued to this day.

3. Technology Lifecycle

Generally speaking, the development of technology needs to go through 4 stages: the first stage is the technology gestation period, the early technology germination period, the willingness of enterprises to enter is low, the number of patent applications and the number of applicants are small; the second stage is the technology growth stage. In this stage, there are breakthroughs in industrial technology or manufacturers have a sense of market value, and they compete to invest in development. The number of patent applications and the number of patent rights has increased rapidly; the third stage is the technology maturity period. The investment of manufacturers in research and development will not expand, only a few continue to develop such technologies, and other manufacturers have low willingness to enter this market, and the growth of the number of patent applications and the number of patentees gradually slows down; the fourth stage is the technical bottleneck period, when the industrial technology research and development encounters a bottleneck, it is difficult to break through or such industries are too mature, and the number of patent applications and the number of patent rights show negative growth. For the production and sales of power lithium-ion batteries, you can click to enter the product details page to learn about TYCORUN ups battery lithium ion products.