Revolutionizing Electric Car Battery Development with X-Ray Technology

The pioneering initiative, XProLas, spearheaded by TRUMPF and backed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), is dedicated to harnessing laser-driven x-ray sources to revolutionize the development of electric car batteries. The primary goal of the project is to create a compact, high-brilliance, next-generation laser-driven x-ray source and demonstration system that manufacturers can utilize for analyzing and enhancing battery durability and performance.

The XProLas project aims to produce a device roughly the size of a mobile home, enabling manufacturers to conduct battery tests on-site, resulting in expedited development and reduced costs. Currently, industry researchers rely on limited time at a synchrotron facility to visualize the chemical processes within a battery and comprehend how repeated charge cycles impact the battery’s structure and capacity over time.

The team is targeting the development of the initial demonstration systems by 2026.

In an exclusive interview with Torsten Mans, TRUMPF’s product manager for secondary sources and project leader, we gained valuable insights into the project’s origin, the technical hurdles to overcome, and its potential applications.

The XProLas initiative was initiated two years ago in response to a BMBF call for project proposals regarding high-radiation sources. Mans outlined the challenges faced, which were beyond TRUMPF’s expertise in delivering powerful lasers. “You need a suitable target, which will then emit x-ray radiation, and then the integrators, which take this extra radiation and do an application with it, and partners who deliver samples, where we can demonstrate the new measurement capabilities we are building,” he explained. Partnering with companies to meet these challenges was crucial to the project’s success.

At TRUMPF, the project stemmed from the company’s secondary sources initiative, driven by Peter Leibinger. Mans noted that the concept aligned perfectly with their existing initiative and that the EUV technology provided to ASML laid the blueprint for the XProLas project.

The XProLas set-up involves a high-intensity laser beam interacting with a target material within a vacuum to create a plasma that emits x-rays. This will serve as the core of a device to be developed, aiming to generate significantly brighter x-ray sources compared to current technologies.

The development of XProLas comes with various scientific and technical challenges, particularly the creation of an x-ray source with significantly higher brightness compared to the current state of the art. The team aims to achieve this by leveraging advances in laser technology and creating relativistic intensities to accelerate electrons inside the target material.

These technical challenges extend to developing suitable targets, addressing issues related to debris from evaporation, beam positioning, and creating new x-ray optics that can effectively utilize the enhanced brightness.

While XProLas initially focuses on applications within battery production, its potential impact extends to other industries, including pharmaceutical companies and semiconductor manufacturers.

By making compact x-ray sources available to manufacturers, XProLas has the potential to revolutionize the way experiments are conducted, shifting from synchrotrons to individual company labs, where researchers could accelerate the pace of innovation and gain access to in-depth analysis at a fraction of the size and cost. This development could result in significant advancements across a wide range of industries.

The ambitious XProLas initiative has the potential to pave the way for significant advancements in electric car battery technology and revolutionize the process of developing high-performance batteries.