Inventions create industries

Proof of Concept grant provides the spark to produce a better battery.

Batteries need to be small, long-lasting and harmless. Building a better one has a bonus: creating jobs for California's best and brightest.

In her quest to develop a tiny, sustainable battery, UC Berkeley engineering graduate student Christine Ho turned to an old idea and abundant metal: zinc. It's environmentally benign and not prone to leaking or exploding like other batteries. Persistent where others had given up, Ho even found a way to make her zinc battery rechargeable. But would it sell?

With a Proof of Concept Commercialization Grant from the UC Office of the President, Ho tested ways to increase production from eight to more than 100 batteries a day. She and UC MBA student Brooks Kincaid formed a startup, Imprint Energy, which garnered backing from impressed investors who heard her presentation at a 2012 UCOP-sponsored technology forum.

Their company is now devising a way to make batteries that are not only as small as a postage stamp, but that can be printed using the same technology used to silkscreen T-shirts.

Read the full story in the press release.

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