Batteries - The New Challenges in Quality Control

March 24, 2021 | Gina Naujokat

Lithium-ion batteries (LIB) have become an indispensable part of modern life. The intensive testing of rechargeable batteries is not only important for ensuring their quality and function but even more for safety aspects.

Lithium-ion batteries (LIB) have become an indispensable part of modern life. They are available for numerous applications such as smartphones, tablets, and notebooks, but their importance is rapidly increasing with regards to e-mobility and in the aerospace sector. The intensive testing of batteries is not only important for ensuring their quality and function but even more for safety aspects.

Declared as dangerous goods under the European Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road (ADR), for example, short circuits and even fires can occur due to faulty assembly or leaking housing.

The most effective inspection method for batteries is the non-destructive X-ray technology. It’s the only method that makes the inner structures visible through the housing, and even batteries already installed in devices can be examined safely and accurately without being removed or opened. By use of three-dimensional computed tomography, the precise and reliable analysis of a test object is possible by magnification, rotation, and slicing the virtual 3D volume at any region of interest.

The sophisticated Cera reconstruction and visualization software no longer relies on processing the entire X-ray image package over 360°, but already calculates the complete 3D volume from 180° without any discernible differences. In this way, it is possible to bring devices close enough to the X-ray tube that all details in the micrometer range are captured at the highest resolution. In this example, we inspected a power bank with a partial scan over 220°. Special filters optimized the image quality by correcting artifacts and beam hardening.

The results of this inspection are really impressive:

Figure 1: Precise manipulation in the YXLON FF35 CT
system with automatic collision protection.

Fig. 2 and 3: The virtual slice of the 3D volume clearly shows that the overlaps of the anodes are sufficient to prevent a short-circuit or a thermal runaway.

Figure 4: Delamination and cracks can result in a reduction of capacity and lifetime or even the breakdown of a battery.

Latest three news

Looking through the glass: X-ray Inspection of Through-Glass Vias (TGV) for Advanced Packaging

June 22, 2026 | Dr. Daniel Stickler

Glass is attracting increasing attention as a substrate material for advanced semiconductor packaging. Its dimensional stability and electrical properties make it an interesting basis for large-area panels and high-density interconnect structures. But when electrical connections are routed through the glass using through-glass vias (TGVs), a new inspection challenge emerges: many of the relevant defects are no longer visible from the surface. At Photomask Japan 2026, we presented our first imaging examples for glass substrates and TGV structures. The results show how X-ray imaging can provide non-destructive access to defects in etched glass vias and metallized TGVs — and why tilted radiography, computed laminography, detector performance, and AI-assisted analysis all matter.

Using CT to unearth new discoveries in Schleswig Holstein’s Duvenseer Moor.

June 8, 2026

Earlier this year, we had the chance to collaborate with the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Individualized Medical Technology and Engineering IMTE (Fraunhofer IMTE) and the Leibniz Centre for Archaeology (LEIZA) on a unique find within an Aurochs skull unearthed at the oldest known grave in northern Germany – The Duvenseer Moor in Schleswig Holstein.

A 9th-Grade Internship, a CT Scan, and an AI That Learned to Tell Sugar from Salt

February 12, 2026 | Dr. Daniel Stickler

During a recent three-week student internship at Comet Yxlon, I had the chance to mentor a 9th-grader who was curious, motivated—and (for good reasons) not allowed to operate X-ray equipment independently. So we designed a project that would still feel real: hands-on data, real analysis, and a clear outcome. The goal was to let her work independently in software while learning the basics of X-ray imaging and computed tomography.