On October 29th local time, BMW i Ventures, a venture capital company owned by automaker BMW (BMW), announced that it will invest in CelLink, a San Francisco-based flexible circuit technology maker. Flexible circuits have the potential to be widely used in electric vehicle production and connected vehicle data transmission.
Other investors who participated in CelLink's $ 22.5 million (about 159 million yuan) Series B financing include Ford Motor Company and Robert Bosch Venture Capital, a venture capital company owned by Bosch. Earlier, CelLink had raised a total of 35 million US dollars (about 252 million yuan), including funds raised from a Series A financing led by 3M Ventures in 2017.
CelLink was founded in 2012 and specializes in lightweight and low-cost flexible circuits. This type of flexible circuit can replace bulky wiring harnesses and traditional wiring with thin conductive circuits sandwiched between two layers of flexible plastic. CelLink's flat flexible circuit can reduce weight by 70% and volume by 90%.
General applications for flexible circuits include consumer electronics and telecommunications products. The company's products are well-suited for power and signal transmission, including automotive wiring, battery packs, LED lighting, and solar photovoltaic.
CelLink will use the newly financed funds to support operations and achieve mass production of products at the first manufacturer by 2019. The company plans to launch a new production facility in 2020 or 2021 to meet the growing demand for flexible circuits.
Initially, CelLink received funding from the 2014 US Department of Energy's Sunshot project, which is designed to support the development of new technologies to reduce the cost of solar energy. CelLink's original goal was to provide connectivity solutions for the solar industry, but its flexible circuit technology is also ideal for the automotive industry, reducing the number of wires required to connect automotive power and battery systems.
A flexible circuit can replace multiple independent circuits in a car. Take the Tesla Model 3 as an example. As Tesla engineers increase the number of flexible circuits, the number of wires used in the Model 3 is half that of the Model S. Such a flat flexible circuit is small in size and light in weight, and can be folded into almost any shape, which can ultimately reduce manufacturing costs.
Flexible circuits also have heat dissipation capabilities that can be designed by engineers to make them suitable for applications such as electric vehicles that often experience extreme temperatures and vibrations.
For connected cars, compared with traditional prototype copper wires, flexible circuits can better control power and data transmission. According to the company, CelLink's flexible circuits can reduce weight by 75% and are only one-tenth the size of traditional circuits. In addition, the flexible circuit can handle high currents, making it particularly suitable for use in electric vehicles.
In 2013, electric vehicle maker Tesla was awarded a patent on a flexible circuit design that connects the cells in a high-voltage battery pack together. According to a patent document, Tesla describes a flexible printed circuit that can connect the electrodes of each cell in a battery pack to improve the manufacturability and reliability of the circuit.
The upcoming Tesla Model Y crossover may use flexible circuit technology to further reduce the amount of wiring. Last year, British car magazine Autocar issued a report saying that although the Model 3 is said to have about 1.5 kilometers of wires, the new flexible circuit of the Model Y will shorten the length to 100 meters.
CelLink expects the market size of its technology to far exceed initial expectations. The company said that its technology is also favored by the aerospace and commercial vehicle industries.