The Microbattery Design Prize will award up to $1.1 million in federal funding and performance and safety testing services with DOE national laboratories to innovative small-capacity battery design projects that will yield improved performance, safety, and recyclability.
The $1.1 million Microbattery Design Prize is seeking innovative designs for small-capacity batteries that can yield improved performance, safety, and recyclability to support the growing number of small, wireless electronic devices used in smart homes, factories, farms, and cities.
Computing power that once fit in a room now fits in our pockets or on our fingertips. Microelectronics continue to transform society, but emerging applications for these tiny technologies requires new, smaller battery designs to meet demand.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office launched the Microbattery Design Prize to supercharge this opportunity. This two-phase prize will help inspire promising designs for small-capacity batteries that yield devices with improved performance, safety, and recyclability.
The prize is designed to advance innovative new designs for microbatteries and accelerate their commercialization and integration into existing technologies needed for clean energy manufacturing, like sensors for improved smart manufacturing processes, or sensors for grid monitoring to help more renewable energy sources come onto the grid.
The prize also aims to close existing gaps in the microelectronics and energy storage supply chains, which will strengthen both U.S. manufacturing competitiveness abroad and domestic end-to-end supply chains for these technologies.
The Microbattery Design Prize has two phases that will run from 2023 to 2024. During Phase 1, also called the Idea Phase, competitors will develop and submit technical designs and schematics for microbatteries that serve a specific application and meet certain performance goals that go beyond what is commercially available today. During Phase 2, also referred to as the Test Phase, competitors will create prototypes they can submit to DOE national labs for performance and safety testing.
Deadline for Phase 1 Submissions: June 29, 2023
The competition is open only to private (for-profit and nonprofit) entities; nonfederal government entities, such as those at state, county, tribal, and municipality levels; academic institutions; and individuals.
