Machine Learning-Enhanced Acoustic Inspection to Improve Battery Manufacturing

Over the past decade, battery costs have declined significantly due to advancements in design, economies of scale, and automation. Yet, lithium-ion batteries remain too costly for widespread adoption of electric vehicles and renewable energy storage systems. As battery cells become larger and more energy-dense, traditional electrical inspection methods are increasingly limited — they struggle to detect the small manufacturing inconsistencies that can lead to major performance issues, reduced yields, and higher costs. These inefficiencies represent an estimated $6 billion annual challenge based on 2022 production volumes. There is an urgent need for next-generation inspection technologies that can be deployed effectively in modern gigafactories.

Feasible’s EchoStat® platform is a breakthrough inspection technology that addresses this need by enabling real-time, nondestructive detection of process issues upstream — where they occur — rather than at the end of production. It leverages ultrasound and advanced data analytics to fill a critical gap left by today’s leading quality-control methods. This innovation focuses on improving productivity, throughput, and yield in battery cell manufacturing — key factors in enabling the rapid scale-up of electrification. By providing earlier insights, EchoStat can accelerate yield ramps by up to two times and increase steady state production yields by 5 percent in high-volume manufacturing environments.

When the California Energy Commission BRIDGE project began, Feasible’s technology was at Technology Readiness Level 4. Over the course of the project, the team designed, built, deployed, and demonstrated the technology across cell prototyping, pilot, and production-scale facilities to validate its techno-economic value. By the project’s completion, EchoStat successfully reached Technology Readiness Level 7 — demonstrating commercial readiness.

As a result, Feasible secured multiple new customers, including a major European cell manufacturer, where EchoStat was successfully integrated in-line at a gigawatt-hour-scale production facility. The company has since raised follow-on investments from both financial and strategic investors, enabling continued expansion of Feasible’s customer footprint and accelerating the impact of this transformative technology.