2013 edition: LIB key patent analysis: High-Voltage Electrolyte
Among various attempts to improve performance of lithium secondary batteries, technologies to increase battery voltage are recently drawing attention. High voltage electrolytes are one of those necessary to achieve high voltage. Along with the key secondary battery technologies such as cathode and anode materials to store high capacity energy, one of the main concerns of the secondary battery industry is to develop high voltage electrolytes that can be charged at higher voltage than typical electrolytes.
To reflect this trend, SNE presents a key patent analysis report for high voltage electrolytes used in LiBs. This report provides information for related technologies, management, and rights. Using this patent information provides a comprehensive understanding of prior art, the problems thereof, and the progress in related technologies, and helps to find new ideas and solutions. Also, it can be a guideline to prevent patent infringements by examining the scope of third party patent rights.
In this report, 1,455 valid patents were selected and analyzed from 8,758 patents on high voltage electrolytes filed in Korea, the U.S., Japan, and Europe until December, 2012. This is expected to provide a useful overview of recent trends in patent applications on high voltage electrolytes and key patents.
This report provides an analysis of electrolyte technologies divided into five sectors: Organic Solvent Electrolyte, Polymer Solid Electrolyte, Inorganic Solid Electrolyte, Gel Electrolyte, and Ionic Liquid. In addition, it also devotes some pages to analyzing electrolyte additives for high voltages. Among them, the Sector Organic Solvent Electrolyte shows the most aggressive patenting filing.
Of Top 10 applicants of patents on high voltage electrolytes, Japanese companies account for the largest portion (7 companies) and three Korean companies are included. Especially, the Japanese companies, Ube Industries and Mitsubishi Chemical, have considerably many patents. What is noteworthy is that the patents filed by the automaker, Toyota, ranked 12th. Samsung SDI has also showed a steady patenting activity and LG Chem and Hitachi Maxwell are also increasing their patent filings.
The key patents analyzed in this report totaled 140 cases, of which 113 cases were filed in the United States. It is shown that most of the key patent filings were filed by a few leading companies in some countries. The country-specific analysis of the key patents also shows that the leading companies own most of the key patents.
The Strong points of this report
- Analysis of high voltage technologies in five categories of high voltage electrolyte technologies
- Dedicated section for analyzing electrolyte additives for high voltage
- Technology flow charts to provide an comprehensive overview of the development trend in high voltage electrolytes
- Detailed analysis of the key patents
- Technology development trends in the leading companies
1.1 Patent Analysis Background
1.2 Patent Analysis Scope
1.3 Methodology
2. TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW
2.1 Trend in High Voltage Electrolyte Technologies
2.2 Trend in High Voltage Electrolyte Market
3. OVERALL PATENT TREND ANALYSIS
3.1 Patent Search Result and Extraction of Valid Patents
3.2 Patent Trend by Country/Year
3.3 Patent Trend of Top Applicants by Year
3.4 Trend in Leading Companies by Country
3.5 Trend in TOP 10 Leading Companies
3.6 Trend in Leading Companies by Year
3.7 Trend in 6 Technology Types by Year
3.8 Trend in 6 Technology types by Applicant
3.9 Share of Each Technology Sector by Interval
3.10 Changes in Applicants
3.11 Trend by Technology/ Country
3.12 Country-specific trend by Technology Type
3.13 Technology Focus by Leading Company
4. HIGH-VOLTAGE ELECTROLYTE: KEY PATENT ANALYSIS OVERVIEW
4.1 Key Patent Selection
4.2 Key Patent Selection
4.3 Shares of Key Patent Filings by Company
4.4 Shares of Key Patent Filings by Year
4.5 Shares of Key Patent Filings by Technology Sector
4.6 Shares of Key Patent Filings of Leading Companies
4.7 Key Patent List by Company
4.8 Key Patent List by Country
4.9 In-depth Analysis of Key Patents
5. ORGANIC SOLVENT ELECTROLYTE ??KEY PATENT ANALYSIS
5.1 Current status of key patents
5.2 Technology Flowchart
5.3 Key Patent Analysis
6. INORGANIC SOLID STATE ELECTROLYTE- KEY PATENT ANALYSIS
6.1 Current status of key patents
6.2 Technology Flowchart
6.3 Key Patent Analysis
7. GEL POLYMER ELECTROLYTE - KEY PATENT ANALYSIS
7.1 Current status of key patents
7.2 Technology Flowchart
7.3 Key Patent Analysis
8. IONIC LIQUID ELECTROLYTE - KEY PATENT ANALYSIS
8.1 Current status of key patents
8.2 Technology Flowchart
8.3 Key Patent Analysis
9. POLYMER SOLID STATE ELECTROLYTE - KEY PATENT ANALYSIS
9.1 Current status of key patents
9.2 Technology Flowchart
9.3 Key Patent Analysis
10. ADDITIVES - KEY PATENT ANALYSIS
10.1 Current status of key patents
10.2 Technology Flowchart
10.3 Key Patent Analysis
11. LEADING COMPANY - KEY PATENT ANALYSIS
11.1 Ube: key patent analysis
11.2 Mitsubishi Chemical: key patent analysis
11.3 Collaboration case between research institute and company
12. CONCLUSION/IMPLICATION
12.1 High-voltage Electrolyte Patent Trend
12.2 Key Technology Trend of Leading Companies
12.3 Analysis of Issue Patents
12.4 Implication
APPENDIX: Summary of high voltage electrolyte core patents - Patents from outside US countries (27 cases)
Patent search result and extraction of valid patents
In the first step, 8,758 patents (raw data) were extracted from searches conducted six times and targeted surveys of each company. After data deduplication to eliminate duplicate copies between published and issued patents and denoising of irrelevant patents, total 1,455 patents were selected as valid patents on high voltage electrolytes, which were classified into Organic solvent electrolyte, Polymer solid state electrolyte, Inorganic solid state electrolyte, Ionic liquid electrolyte, Gel polymer electrolyte, and Additives. The detail of the valid patents on a country by country basis is as follows.
Patent trend by country/year
The patent trend on high voltage electrolytes by year/country is as follows (valid patents: total 1,455 cases). There was a sharp increase in patent application from 2004 to 2007 and after a slowdown in 2008, it continues on an upward trend. The most active patenting activities are shown in japan, and the U.S. and Korea are competing, accounting for similar shares. (Please note that there has been a downward trend in patent filings since 2011, due to the nature of the current patent system wherein a patent is published one year and a half after its filing).
Patent trend of top applicants by year
The following table shows patent filings and applicants on high voltage electrolyte technologies. Patents on high voltage electrolytes have been filed by 108 companies and research institutes in the U.S., Japan, Korea, and China (CN) (patents filed by individuals are not included). In terms of the number of patent filings, the Japanese companies, UBE and Mitsubishi Chemical,have shown the most active patenting activities, followed by LG Chem and Sanyo.
Trend by technology sector and year
The following shows the patent trend on high voltage electrolyte technologies by six technology sectors. On the whole, there is a growing trend across the six technology sectors. Especially, Sector Organic solvent electrolyte shows a high share of 54% with the increase in patent filings since 2003, which is indicative of active technology developments.
