Excellatron - the Company

Excellatron announced that during the last four months it has been awarded two Phase II and one Phase I SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) grants for the development of innovative energy storage devices. Combined funding is $1.6 million over the next two years. These opportunities come with innovation and perseverance. "We never quit," said Dr. Lonnie Johnson, founder and CEO of Excellatron. Excellatron has been engaged in the development of thin film lithium batteries since 1998. These batteries have a cycling life as long as 40,000 cycles, much longer than other batteries that can only be used for less than 500 cycles. They are also more environmentally friendly than other batteries because they are made of inorganic solid state materials and there is no liquid or polymer inside the batteries.

After the meltdown of the high technology market in 2000-2001, Excellatron realized that successful marketing of high performance, thin film lithium batteries would require a low cost, high rate deposition technique. Since then, the company has concentrated on the development of low cost production technology for thin film batteries. In October 2001, Excellatron was awarded a $1.44 million grant by the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop a high-rate deposition technology for manufacture of thin film solid-state batteries. This project resulted in a high rate deposition process based on Excellatron's proprietary Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD) technique. This process is four times faster than other technologies used in the industry. The electrolyte produced by this technique can conduct lithium ions three times faster than the electrolyte produced by other techniques. In addition, the company also developed a novel anode material, which has a discharge capacity six times better than that of the carbon anode currently used in the battery industry.

After successfully developing a high rate deposition process for high quality electrolyte and anode material during the ATP project, during this last year, Excellatron has continued its push for technology excellence by turning its attention to a low cost production method for cathode material. This relentless effort resulted in the award of a Phase I SBIR grant by the DoD (and a follow on Phase II awarded on April 17, 2006). "Success of this program will have revolutionary impacts on the thin film lithium battery industry," said Dr. Jason Zhang, Chief Technology Officer of Excellatron and the Principal Investigator of the project. "It will further reduce the production cost of thin film lithium batteries and break down the market barriers to this new technology."

Recently, Excellatron has received another Phase I SBIR award from DOE entitled "Rechargeable High Temperature Battery." This project will develop a battery to operate at temperatures as high as 250°C. Success of this project will enable the drilling industry to greatly extend their down hole drilling operations without interruptions. This capability will significantly reduce the production cost of oil and gas and save the industry and its customers hundreds of thousands of dollars per day. These high energy density batteries will also be the ideal power source for many highly demanding premium applications, such as high temperature sensors, smart cards, micro batteries, medical and military applications.

As a company specializing in energy storage and conversion technologies, Excellatron is very sensitive to the cutting edge of the technology in this field, including fuel cells and power scavenging technology, and has been quietly diversifying its technology portfolios. Another SBIR project recently funded by the DoD is a good example of this effort. In Phase I of the project, Excellatron has verified the feasibility of an innovative reversible energy storage device. During Phase II of the project started recently, Excellatron will scale-up the manufacturing process to demonstrate a high capacity, high energy density device. "These novel devices can store at least twice as much energy as conventional batteries, and will be extremely valuable for applications which require high energy densities," said Dr. Jason Zhang, who is also the Principal Investigator of this project. Mr. Tony Pace, Chief Operating Officer of Excellatron, indicated that "These new devices will initially be used in high end military applications and eventually spread to the commercial market as production costs are reduced with the implementation of our low cost manufacturing techniques."

With these projects and the increasing interest from several customers in its high performance thin film batteries, Excellatron looks forward to showing the world the exciting results of the work it has nurtured during the last eight years.

- During 1999 Excellatron Solid State LLC acquired equipment for the commercialization of advanced battery technology. To help fund the purchase of the equipment the company received a loan from the Atlanta Empowerment Zone (AEZ) Corporation. Excellatron anticipated that strong interest in technology driven by the demand for more advanced functions would allow the company to produce solid state batteries in the Empowerment Zone. As intended by the charter of the Empowerment Zone loan program, Excellatron planned to create hundreds of jobs in the zone.

The crash of technology markets during 2000 forced the company to put many of its plans for rapid expansion on hold. The events of September 11, 2001 further placed a damper on new product development and introductions. While many technology companies failed and went out of business, Excellatron managed to survive by scaling back and focusing available resources on technology advancement in order to maintain its leadership position. As the technology market is slowly recovering and renewed interest is now being expressed in new technology, Excellatron is beginning to look at growth again.

As one of the few companies still around that benefited from loans made by the AEZ, Excellatron intends to make good on its commitment to operate and create jobs in the inner city. Today the area previously called Atlanta’s Empowerment Zone is a Renewal Community, but the needs of the community have changed little. Putting low-income residents to work is still a high priority of Excellatron. One goal of the Johnson companies is helping to revitalize inner city neighborhoods and support the economic activity that will stimulate renewal. Excellatron is presently working to bring its battery technology to scale. Along with other Johnson companies, Excellatron has created relationships with a host of companies such as Lockheed, Raytheon, Hasbro and several agencies in the federal government. The Johnson family of companies shares the dreams of many in the community for a better future, and the company is dedicated to making that dream a reality.

The grant is for research on high-rate deposition technology for use in the manufacture of thin film solid state batteries. The award in the sum of $1,444,000 is part of an overall project budget of approximately $2,231,000. The research is to be conducted over a period of three years.

"We are excited to be in a position to accelerate the development of our technology for thin film batteries," said Lonnie G. Johnson, Founder and President of Excellatron . Johnson added, "This research and development work will allow us to maintain our leadership position. " ATP's decision was based on a thorough review of the proposed research, experimental methodology, commercialization plan, technical innovation and potential for broad based economic impact. Thin film solid state batteries were invented at Oak Ridge National Laboratory a decade ago. Since then Excellatron has developed the technology significantly and has made important progress in the commercialization of thin film batteries.

These innovative batteries are manufactured from all solid state materials, making them safer than any existing battery technology and allowing the batteries to survive at temperatures as high as 160ºC or even 300ºC. Johnson said,"The amount of power you can store in these batteries far exceeds anything possible by even the newest lithium ion polymer batteries. The rate at which you can get the power out of thin film batteries puts Excellatron's product in a class by itself."

"Extremely high energy and power density levels make thin film technology ideal for use in many of the electronic devices ubiquitous in our modern lives," said Jacobus Boers, Vice President of Business Development for Excellatron . Potential applications for thin film batteries include implantable medical devices, smart cards, non-volatile static random access memory (nvSRAM), and energy storage devices for electronic equipment such as wireless communications equipment and sensors.

Current interest in increased security in the U.S. and abroad is generating much interest in Excellatron. "There is heightened interest in using our technology in security devices such as smart cards with biometric capability, allowing these cards to function only after the user has been authenticated. For example, the processing required to recognize a fingerprint requires power and our energy storage technology is ideally suited for these types of applications," added Boers.

Excellatron decided to commercialize thin film batteries a couple of years ago and the first batteries are currently being integrated into pre-production runs of innovative products by leading technology companies. Several companies have evaluated custom designed prototype production batteries over the past year. A number have requested additional modifications for optimal use in their applications.

Slow production processes have limited commercialization of thin film batteries. The development of plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) technology, funded by this ATP award, will allow manufacturing rates to be increased by at least a factor of three. "The rigors of the peer review evaluation to which NIST subjected our proposal required that we develop a high quality research methodology," said Jason Zhang, Chief Technology Officer of Excellatron . "Successful completion of this research promises to take thin film battery technology from low volume, specialty applications to high volume commercial usage," added Zhang.

	(Atlanta, Georgia, June 15, 2006) Excellatron Awarded Two Phase II and One Phase I SBIR Awards for the Development of Innovative Energy Storage Devices Excellatron announced that during the last four months it has been awarded two Phase II and one Phase I SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) grants for the development of innovative energy storage devices. Combined funding is $1.6 million over the next two years. These opportunities come with innovation and perseverance. "We never quit," said Dr. Lonnie Johnson, founder and CEO of Excellatron. Excellatron has been engaged in the development of thin film lithium batteries since 1998. These batteries have a cycling life as long as 40,000 cycles, much longer than other batteries that can only be used for less than 500 cycles. They are also more environmentally friendly than other batteries because they are made of inorganic solid state materials and there is no liquid or polymer inside the batteries. After the meltdown of the high technology market in 2000-2001, Excellatron realized that successful marketing of high performance, thin film lithium batteries would require a low cost, high rate deposition technique. Since then, the company has concentrated on the development of low cost production technology for thin film batteries. In October 2001, Excellatron was awarded a $1.44 million grant by the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop a high-rate deposition technology for manufacture of thin film solid-state batteries. This project resulted in a high rate deposition process based on Excellatron's proprietary Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD) technique. This process is four times faster than other technologies used in the industry. The electrolyte produced by this technique can conduct lithium ions three times faster than the electrolyte produced by other techniques. In addition, the company also developed a novel anode material, which has a discharge capacity six times better than that of the carbon anode currently used in the battery industry. After successfully developing a high rate deposition process for high quality electrolyte and anode material during the ATP project, during this last year, Excellatron has continued its push for technology excellence by turning its attention to a low cost production method for cathode material. This relentless effort resulted in the award of a Phase I SBIR grant by the DoD (and a follow on Phase II awarded on April 17, 2006). "Success of this program will have revolutionary impacts on the thin film lithium battery industry," said Dr. Jason Zhang, Chief Technology Officer of Excellatron and the Principal Investigator of the project. "It will further reduce the production cost of thin film lithium batteries and break down the market barriers to this new technology." Recently, Excellatron has received another Phase I SBIR award from DOE entitled "Rechargeable High Temperature Battery." This project will develop a battery to operate at temperatures as high as 250°C. Success of this project will enable the drilling industry to greatly extend their down hole drilling operations without interruptions. This capability will significantly reduce the production cost of oil and gas and save the industry and its customers hundreds of thousands of dollars per day. These high energy density batteries will also be the ideal power source for many highly demanding premium applications, such as high temperature sensors, smart cards, micro batteries, medical and military applications. As a company specializing in energy storage and conversion technologies, Excellatron is very sensitive to the cutting edge of the technology in this field, including fuel cells and power scavenging technology, and has been quietly diversifying its technology portfolios. Another SBIR project recently funded by the DoD is a good example of this effort. In Phase I of the project, Excellatron has verified the feasibility of an innovative reversible energy storage device. During Phase II of the project started recently, Excellatron will scale-up the manufacturing process to demonstrate a high capacity, high energy density device. "These novel devices can store at least twice as much energy as conventional batteries, and will be extremely valuable for applications which require high energy densities," said Dr. Jason Zhang, who is also the Principal Investigator of this project. Mr. Tony Pace, Chief Operating Officer of Excellatron, indicated that "These new devices will initially be used in high end military applications and eventually spread to the commercial market as production costs are reduced with the implementation of our low cost manufacturing techniques." With these projects and the increasing interest from several customers in its high performance thin film batteries, Excellatron looks forward to showing the world the exciting results of the work it has nurtured during the last eight years.
	(Atlanta, Georgia, March 28, 2005) EXCELLATRON SURVIVES TECHNOLOGY MELT DOWN - During 1999 Excellatron Solid State LLC acquired equipment for the commercialization of advanced battery technology. To help fund the purchase of the equipment the company received a loan from the Atlanta Empowerment Zone (AEZ) Corporation. Excellatron anticipated that strong interest in technology driven by the demand for more advanced functions would allow the company to produce solid state batteries in the Empowerment Zone. As intended by the charter of the Empowerment Zone loan program, Excellatron planned to create hundreds of jobs in the zone. The crash of technology markets during 2000 forced the company to put many of its plans for rapid expansion on hold. The events of September 11, 2001 further placed a damper on new product development and introductions. While many technology companies failed and went out of business, Excellatron managed to survive by scaling back and focusing available resources on technology advancement in order to maintain its leadership position. As the technology market is slowly recovering and renewed interest is now being expressed in new technology, Excellatron is beginning to look at growth again. As one of the few companies still around that benefited from loans made by the AEZ, Excellatron intends to make good on its commitment to operate and create jobs in the inner city. Today the area previously called Atlanta’s Empowerment Zone is a Renewal Community, but the needs of the community have changed little. Putting low-income residents to work is still a high priority of Excellatron. One goal of the Johnson companies is helping to revitalize inner city neighborhoods and support the economic activity that will stimulate renewal. Excellatron is presently working to bring its battery technology to scale. Along with other Johnson companies, Excellatron has created relationships with a host of companies such as Lockheed, Raytheon, Hasbro and several agencies in the federal government. The Johnson family of companies shares the dreams of many in the community for a better future, and the company is dedicated to making that dream a reality.
	(Atlanta, Georgia, October 26, 2001) Excellatron Solid State announced that it has been awarded a grant by the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) . The grant is for research on high-rate deposition technology for use in the manufacture of thin film solid state batteries. The award in the sum of $1,444,000 is part of an overall project budget of approximately $2,231,000. The research is to be conducted over a period of three years. "We are excited to be in a position to accelerate the development of our technology for thin film batteries," said Lonnie G. Johnson, Founder and President of Excellatron . Johnson added, "This research and development work will allow us to maintain our leadership position. " ATP's decision was based on a thorough review of the proposed research, experimental methodology, commercialization plan, technical innovation and potential for broad based economic impact. Thin film solid state batteries were invented at Oak Ridge National Laboratory a decade ago. Since then Excellatron has developed the technology significantly and has made important progress in the commercialization of thin film batteries. These innovative batteries are manufactured from all solid state materials, making them safer than any existing battery technology and allowing the batteries to survive at temperatures as high as 160ºC or even 300ºC. Johnson said,"The amount of power you can store in these batteries far exceeds anything possible by even the newest lithium ion polymer batteries. The rate at which you can get the power out of thin film batteries puts Excellatron's product in a class by itself." "Extremely high energy and power density levels make thin film technology ideal for use in many of the electronic devices ubiquitous in our modern lives," said Jacobus Boers, Vice President of Business Development for Excellatron . Potential applications for thin film batteries include implantable medical devices, smart cards, non-volatile static random access memory (nvSRAM), and energy storage devices for electronic equipment such as wireless communications equipment and sensors. Current interest in increased security in the U.S. and abroad is generating much interest in Excellatron. "There is heightened interest in using our technology in security devices such as smart cards with biometric capability, allowing these cards to function only after the user has been authenticated. For example, the processing required to recognize a fingerprint requires power and our energy storage technology is ideally suited for these types of applications," added Boers. Excellatron decided to commercialize thin film batteries a couple of years ago and the first batteries are currently being integrated into pre-production runs of innovative products by leading technology companies. Several companies have evaluated custom designed prototype production batteries over the past year. A number have requested additional modifications for optimal use in their applications. Slow production processes have limited commercialization of thin film batteries. The development of plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) technology, funded by this ATP award, will allow manufacturing rates to be increased by at least a factor of three. "The rigors of the peer review evaluation to which NIST subjected our proposal required that we develop a high quality research methodology," said Jason Zhang, Chief Technology Officer of Excellatron . "Successful completion of this research promises to take thin film battery technology from low volume, specialty applications to high volume commercial usage," added Zhang.