Panasonic Corporation has developed a pin-shaped Lithium Ion battery (CG-320, nominal capacity 13mAh) with a diameter of 3.5mm and a weight of 0.6g.

This offering will give designers an added choice to their power sources for new designs among paper and thin film batteries but is not an earth-shattering battery breakthrough. EaglePicher has had small LiIon batteries for implantables for a while and Quallion has a 2.6mm diameter by 10.9mm height in their QL0002l device for implantables and sensors---BUT---it has only 1.5 mAh capacity.

The Panasonic battery, however, is capable of powering wearable devices and other small form-factor designs but has the high output (13mAh) required for applications such as near-field communications (NFC).

Some applications for a small or pin-shaped battery

Panasonic has utilized its battery material technology such as lithium ion batteries, coin-shaped and other small lithium battery production technology, to produce this battery. An exterior stainless steel can provide dimensional stability and will prevent battery swelling.

Panasonic pin-shaped battery construction

For small batteries, there are also many sources of thin film batteries, even by major semiconductor suppliers like ST Microelectronics if a super-thin form factor is in order. Cymbet might have the best combination of innovative small batteries with their EnerChip solid-state battery that has a 0.073 cubic centimeter volume as opposed to a 2032 Li Ion coin cell at 1.04 cubic centimeters in surface mount packages. They also have bare die available as well as thin film offerings.

So we need to look at the capacity vs. size as a primary spec and then the secondary goal will depend upon the product/environment of the design system and also price and availability comes into play as well in any design.

Tiny pin-shaped Lithium Ion battery