Ensurge Micropower ASA (
Oslo Stock Exchange
Oslo Stock Exchange ( no, Oslo Børs) (OSE: OSLO) is a stock exchange within the Nordic countries and offers Norway’s only regulated markets for securities trading today. The stock exchange offers a full product range including equities, deriv ...
ENSU is a
Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
* Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
* Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including ...
microbattery manufacturing company with global headquarters, R&D offices, and
flexible electronics
Flexible electronics, also known as ''flex circuits'', is a technology for assembling electronic circuits by mounting electronic devices on flexible plastic substrates, such as polyimide, PEEK or transparent conductive polyester film. Additi ...
manufacturing in
San Jose, California
San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
and corporate headquarters in
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...
. Ensurge designs, develops, and produces
solid-state lithium battery (SSLB) products using
roll-to-roll
In the field of electronic devices, roll-to-roll processing, also known as web processing, reel-to-reel processing or R2R, is the process of creating electronic devices on a roll of flexible plastic, metal foil, or flexible glass. In other fields p ...
printing technology on
stainless steel
Stainless steel is an alloy of iron that is resistant to rusting and corrosion. It contains at least 11% chromium and may contain elements such as carbon, other nonmetals and metals to obtain other desired properties. Stainless steel's corros ...
substrates.
Ensurge announced an updated corporate strategy based on SSLB products in January 2020, when it was known as Thin Film Electronics ASA. Previously, the company used flexible and printed electronics manufacturing to produce
NFC
NFC may refer to:
Psychology
* Need for cognition, in psychology
* Need for closure, social psychological term
Sports
* NFC Championship Game, the National Football Conference Championship Game
* NCAA Football Championship (Philippines)
* Nati ...
tags,
Electronic article surveillance
Electronic article surveillance is a technological method for preventing shoplifting from retail stores, pilferage of books from libraries or removal of properties from office buildings. Special tags are fixed to merchandise; these tags are remove ...
labels, and temperature sensing smart labels.
History
The company had developed printable memories based on polymer materials as early as 1994; first as part of
Opticom ASA and then as an independent company. For the first ten years, the focus was on hybrid memory devices with polymer-based memory and silicon-based control circuitry, as developed jointly with
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...
. From 2006, Following that time, the company concentrated its efforts on printed electronics. It successfully demonstrated
roll-to-roll
In the field of electronic devices, roll-to-roll processing, also known as web processing, reel-to-reel processing or R2R, is the process of creating electronic devices on a roll of flexible plastic, metal foil, or flexible glass. In other fields p ...
printed
organic
Organic may refer to:
* Organic, of or relating to an organism, a living entity
* Organic, of or relating to an anatomical organ
Chemistry
* Organic matter, matter that has come from a once-living organism, is capable of decay or is the product ...
memory in 2009 and was awarded th
IDTechExTechnical Development Manufacturing Award the same year. Its printed memory technology was licensed to Xerox in December 2014 and marketed as of June 2016 as Xerox Printed Memory.
In January 2014, the company acquired the flexible electronics technology, including steel substrate, barrier materials, and encapsulation IP, of
Kovio
Kovio, Inc. was a privately held Silicon Valley technology company headquartered in San Jose, California that manufactured electronic devices based on a proprietary Printed electronics, printed silicon electronics platform.Clark, Mike"Kovio Sign ...
and opened a major R&D office in San Jose, California.
In February 2015, the company demonstrated a connected NFC "smart bottle" at the
Mobile World Congress
MWC Barcelona (formerly but still commonly referred to as Mobile World Congress) is an annual trade show organised by GSMA, dedicated primarily to the mobile communications industry.
The event is held in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain at the Fir ...
in Barcelona. This announcement coincided with the launch of NFC OpenSense technology, a patented printed NFC 'electronic seal' tag feature that allowed a smartphone to determine whether a bottle was factory sealed or previously opened.
In January 2020, the company announced an updated strategy focused on the design, development, and production of solid-state lithium battery (SSLB) products. The SSLB products are to be manufactured in its San Jose, California manufacturing facility.
In June 2021, the company rebranded as Ensurge Micropower ASA
Technology
Ensurge solid-state lithium battery (SSLB) technology is used to manufacture rechargeable microbattery products. The company states that the products use a solid electrolyte material that is fundamentally safer than liquid and gel polymer electrolytes used in common rechargeable batteries. Ensurge's use of stainless steel substrates, rather than silicon or ceramic substrates, gives the company a unique ability to substantially scale production capacity using high-volume roll-based manufacturing methods. The resulting battery products are designed to extend battery life (through higher volumetric energy densities), increase device lifetime (through higher charge/discharge cycling counts), and improve design flexibility (by enabling unconventional battery sizes). The company believes that the resulting battery products will be particularly useful in market segments including wearable electronics and connected sensors.
Awards
The company has won a number of awards for innovation and technical development since first demonstrating roll-to-roll printing of electronics in 2009.
In 2012, it was awarded both the IDTechEx Product Development Award and the FlexTech Alliance Innovation Award for its Addressable Memory technology built in association with PARC. Also in late 2012, it was named as a runner-up in the Wall Street Journal Technology's Innovation Award.
In October 2012, it won the 2012 World Technology Award for Visionary Contribution to Materials Science and Technology in the development of printed smart tags for the
Internet of Things
The Internet of things (IoT) describes physical objects (or groups of such objects) with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other comm ...
.
In November 2018, the company's stainless-steel substrate roll-to-roll factory in San Jose, California won the IDTechEx Technical Development Manufacturing Award.
References
{{Authority control
Electronics companies of Norway
Electronics companies established in 2005
Manufacturing companies based in Oslo
Companies listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange
Norwegian companies established in 2005