Battery CT Scanning & Cell Quality Software | Glimpse

The Glimpse Portal • Battery

CT-powered cell quality management solution, built by battery experts

Whether you’re a cell producer, a cell buyer, or both, our Battery package lets you experience the full scope of Glimpse’s end-to-end cell CT scanning solution deployed at your facility. Powering some of the largest gigafactories in the world.

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CT scanning for batteries

Why choose X-ray CT scanning for battery quality control?

A dent in the can, a negative anode overhang, a tear in the tab, a buckled jellyroll...

Battery defects come in a variety of shapes and sizes and can reside in any part of the cell. In many instances, these defects are latent, which means that they are initially imperceptible to standard electrical characterization techniques. By generating a high-resolution map of the cell's internal structure, X-ray computed tomography (CT) scanning makes it possible to create a comprehensive assessment of a battery’s manufacturing quality.

A common misconception is that CT scanning is too slow and expensive to be compatible with gigawatt-hour scale battery production and assembly environments. That’s where Glimpse comes in.

Read THE nature publication WRITTEN BY OUR FOUNDERS

Explore the Battery Quality Science Corner

High-throughput scanning

10 to 30x scan time reduction without sacrificing image quality

Speed up cell CT with our high-throughput scanning module and build a digital fingerprint of your cell quality.

Increase sampling rates to hundreds of cells per day and beyond, prevent defect escapes, shorten root causing from weeks to hours, and reduce physical tear downs.

We support all cell form factors:
Pouch, prismatic, and cylindrical.

Learn about CT for Batteries

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Generalized inspection algorithms

Control your cell quality with our full suite of inspection algorithms

Anode overhang, cathode width, core circularity, can denting, crimp height, and many more. Our team has developed a suite of generalized cell inspection algorithms by collecting millions of cross sections from the world's most diverse dataset of cell designs.

Min. overhang · 0.13 mm

Max. cathode width · 62.31 mm

Core buckling · none detected

Max. can dent · 0.08 mm

For cell teams working on:

Cell development

Cell qualification

Gigafactory ramp-up

Mass production

Incoming quality control

Fleet failure management

What computer vision algorithms do we support?

Automated inspection algorithms for batteries

This section describes Glimpse's standard automated inspection algorithms. Our standard algorithms are mostly targeted at cylindrical cells, but we support inspection algorithms for all cell form factors and even samples other than battery cells. Glimpse can develop bespoke inspection algorithms upon request. Contact us to discuss further.

Core

Core shape

Core buckling

Core impingement

Can

Anode overhang

Cathode width & positions

Crimp

Core shape

What we track

Area & effective diameter

Defined by the area captured by the inner contour of the innermost cathode wrap and the diameter of the corresponding circle

Circularity, MCC

Defined by maximum inward deviation from a minimum circumscribed circle (MCC). This metric identifies flat spots in the core

Circularity, d_min/d_max

Defined by eccentricity (min diameter / max diameter, or d_min/d_max). This metric identifies oval-shaped cores

Concentricity

Defined by the distance from the center of the can to the center of the core. This metric measures the centeredness of the jellyroll within the can

Note that we have two different core circularity metrics:

d_min/d_max and MCC. These metrics are complementary and can identify different types of circularity issues (see details below). Neither metric will approach 100% since jellyrolls are actually spirals; for instance, the maximum MCC value we observe in practice is ~93%.

Area & Effective Diameter

Circularity, dₘᵢₙ/dₘₐₓ

Circularity, min circumscribed circle (MCC)

Concentricity

How/where it is measured

Cylindrical cells:

Measured in every radial cross section from top to bottom of the jellyroll

Why it matters

Area & effective diameter

Large core area increases core buckling risk. Core area also serves as an indicator of jellyroll swelling over life¹

Circularity, MCC

Poor core circularity increases core buckling risk. The MCC metric can identify flat spots in the core, which are often hotspots for buckling initiation ²ʼ³. For cells with core buckling, MCC also measures the extent of buckling

Circularity, d_min/d_max

Poor core circularity increases core buckling risk. The d_min/d_max metric can identify oval-shaped cores, which are less resistant to buckling than circular cores

Concentricity

Off-centered jellyrolls have a higher risk of experiencing failure in high-vibration environments⁴

¹ “Bridging the Gap Between Academic and Industry Li-Ion Battery Research” — doi.org/10.3389/fbael.2023.1287887

² “Core Collapse in Cylindrical Li-Ion Batteries”

³ “Geometrical Inhomogeneities as Cause of Mechanical Failure in Commercial 18650 Lithium Ion Cells” — doi.org/10.1149/2.0551914jes

⁴ Journal of Energy Storage — doi.org/10.1016/j.est.2021.103213

Core buckling

What we track

We classify each image into three categories:

Level 0: No core buckling
Level 1: Marginal core buckling, defined by the presence of any negative curvature of the cathode wraps
Level 2: Core buckling, defined by the presence of significant negative curvature of the cathode wraps

We also report the number of buckled cathode wraps. This metric is a more granular measure of core buckling severity than our three-level classification.

These metrics are highly correlated but complementary:

For instance, a cell with 1 buckled wrap may be classified as Level 2, while a cell with 3 buckled wraps may be classified as Level 1.

These levels aren't an exact science; in practice, the boundaries between these levels are fuzzy. For instance, the above image with 8 buckled wraps could be considered to have 9 buckled wraps.

Level 0: No core buckling

Level 1: Marginal core buckling

Level 2: Core buckling

2 buckled wraps

5 buckled wraps

8 buckled wraps

How/where it is measured

Cylindrical cells:

Measured in every radial cross section from top to bottom of the jellyroll

Why it matters

Core buckling is an internal shorting risk via either localized lithium plating, separator puncture via the cathode, or both. Some references: ¹ ² ³ ⁴

Figure 7 from “A Mechanical Aging Mechanism in Lithium-Ion Batteries”¹ illustrates the extreme mechanical deformation associated with core buckling:

Glimpse has also published some research on “core collapse”. ⁵ ⁶ ⁷

Core buckling is driven by many complex factors, including jellyroll geometry, electrode material properties, and cell chemistry. Note that the cycle life/capacity fade is often unaffected by core buckling since the fraction of the jellyroll that has collapsed can be quite small (keep in mind much more capacity is contained in wraps far from the core). Also note that the probability/timescales of core buckling causing a small (soft) short, and then that short developing into runaway, are highly variable.

¹ “A Mechanical Aging Mechanism in Lithium-Ion Batteries”

² “Geometrical Inhomogeneities as Cause of Mechanical Failure in Commercial 18650 Lithium Ion Cells” — doi.org/10.1149/2.0551914jes

³ “Core Collapse in Cylindrical Li-Ion Batteries”

⁴ “Bridging the Gap Between Academic and Industry Li-Ion Battery Research” — doi.org/10.3389/fbael.2023.1287887

⁵ Glimpse — “Coupling X-Ray Computed Tomography with Digital Volume Correlation to Study Core Collapse in Lithium-Ion Batteries” — doi.org/10.1039/D5EB00229J

⁶ Glimpse — “Core Collapse Instability of Spirally Wound Jelly-Roll Lithium-Ion Batteries” — doi.org/10.1007/s11340-026-01287-1

⁷ Glimpse — “Limits of electrochemical data for predicting battery lifetime and failure”; see Figure 4

Core impingement

What we track

We classify each image into three categories:

Level 0: No core impingement
Level 1: Core impingement without cathode tip damage, defined by a sharp angle of the anode at the cathode start point
Level 2: Core impingement with cathode tip damage, defined by visible damage to the cathode tip in the presence of core impingement

These levels aren't an exact science

In practice, the boundaries between these levels are fuzzy.

Note that cells with tapered cathodes at the core (see examples below) cannot have impingement by definition. See this Tesla patent¹ for details.

Level 0: No core impingement

Level 1: Core impingement, without cathode tip damage

Level 2: Core impingement, with cathode tip damage

Examples of tapered cathodes at the core

How/where it is measured

Cylindrical cells:

Measured in every radial cross section from top to bottom of the jellyroll

Why it matters

Core impingement is an internal shorting risk. See this Tesla patent¹ and this subsequent Tesla patent² for details.
Cathode tip damage indicates especially high stress at the cathode start point and thus a higher risk of internal shorting. See slides 19–21 of this presentation³, covering joint work between Glimpse and NASA, for more details.

¹ Tesla patent WO2025054163A1 — patents.google.com/patent/WO2025054163A1/en

² Tesla patent WO2026055137A1 — patents.google.com/patent/WO2026055137A1/en

³ NASA, “Correlating cell failing delta-OCV testing with cell defects” (Ruth Young), slides 19–21

Can

What we track

Mean inner diameter
Mean outer diameter
Mean wall thickness
Circularity, as defined by its eccentricity (min diameter / max diameter, or d_min/d_max). This metric identifies oval-shaped cans
Max denting

Inner diameter

Inner diameter

Mean wall thickness

Circularity, d_min/d_max

Max denting

How/where it is measured

Cylindrical cells:

Measured in every radial cross section from top to bottom of the jellyroll

Why it matters

Inner diameter & outer diameter: Can diameter is a key cell design specification and an indicator of jellyroll swelling
Wall thickness: Thinner can walls increase side rupture risk
Circularity, d_min/d_max: Poor can circularity increases core buckling risk
Denting: Dents increase core buckling risk. For example, see the dented cell after cycling shown here

Some references on can swelling and deformation: ¹ ² ³

A dented cell after cycling

¹ “The Development of Jelly Roll Deformation in 18650 Lithium-Ion Batteries at Low State of Charge” — doi.org/10.1149/1945-7111/aba96d

² “Non-Uniform Circumferential Expansion of Cylindrical Li-Ion Cells — The Potato Effect” — doi.org/10.3390/batteries7030061

³ “Minute Differences in Battery Geometry Explain Electrochemical Variability” — doi.org/10.26434/chemrxiv-2025-wcxzr

Anode overhang

What we track

Minimum, maximum, mean, and standard deviation of anode overhang within the whole jellyroll, the top of the jellyroll, and the bottom of the jellyroll
Anode overhang asymmetry (top/bottom)
Anode overhang violations (overhang < 0 mm). Note that you may want to use an overhang threshold >0 mm in practice, but we use a 0 mm threshold here for simplicity. IEEE Std 1725-2021¹, section 5.2.4, suggests a minimum overhang spec of 100 µm.

¹ IEEE Std 1725-2021, section 5.2.4 — IEEE Standard for Rechargeable Batteries for Cellular Telephones

How/where it is measured

Cylindrical cells: Measured at the top and bottom of every axial cross section
Pouch and prismatic cells: Depends on the cell design

Why it matters

Small or negative anode overhangs (cathode overhanging anode) are a lithium plating risk¹
Large anode overhangs can reduce cell capacity and energy by serving as a lithium reservoir²
Anode overhang variation indicates poor manufacturing control
We don’t track this today, but bent or deflected overhangs can also be a shorting risk. This issue was responsible for the Galaxy Note 7 failures³

Bent overhang, Galaxy Note 7

¹ Cell Reports Physical Science — cell.com/cell-reports-physical-science/fulltext/S2666-3864(24)00613-1

² ACCURE, “Battery anode overhang effect” — accure.net/blogs/battery-anode-overhang-effect

³ The Guardian, 23 Jan 2017 — “Samsung blames faulty batteries for causing Galaxy Note 7 fires”

Cathode width & positions

What we track

Minimum, maximum, mean, and standard deviation of cathode width
Minimum, maximum, mean, and standard deviation of cathode end positions at the top and bottom of the cell

How/where it is measured

Cylindrical cells: Measured within the jellyroll in every axial cross section

Why it matters

Cathode width can correlate to cell capacity and/or energy since the cathode serves as the lithium source in the cell
Cathode end positions close to the anode terminal can pose an internal shorting risk
Variation in cathode width and/or end position often indicates poor coating/winding control

Crimp

What we track

Minimum, maximum, and mean crimp height, measured a fixed distance (0.8 mm) from the crimp edge. Minimum, maximum, and mean crimp groove gap.

Crimp height

Crimp groove gap

How/where it is measured

Cylindrical cells:

Measured in the header region in every axial cross section

Note: The crimp groove gap measurement only applies to cells with a clearly defined narrow groove region. See the images below: the left image does not have a measurable groove gap, while the right image does.

No measurable
groove gap

Measurable groove gap

Why it matters

The crimp height and crimp groove gap are indicators of crimp quality, which impacts cell mechanical integrity, sealing quality, and abuse tolerance
Wide variability within a cell may indicate crimp deformation
Wide variability across cells may indicate a poorly-controlled crimping process

Cases studies

Learn how our cell customers are using the Battery package.

View our case studies

How Lucid Motors uses the Glimpse Portal on its scanner

Founded by cell quality experts

Built by cell engineers, for cell engineers

Glimpse's co-founders spent a combined 30 years in the Li-ion battery industry. Whether they were working for cell producers or electric vehicle makers, every time they faced a cell quality challenge, they systematically turned to the same technology for answers: X-ray CT scanning.

The Glimpse Portal Battery package was built to turn CT scanning from a low-volume, costly lab instrument into the world’s most powerful battery quality management solution.

Resources

CT for Battery Cells

Learn from our team of battery quality experts what CT can and cannot reveal in your cells, and why.

Resources

Battery Quality Science Corner

Our published research on how cells fail and which defects matter.

Resources

Scan On Demand for Battery Cells

The CT scanning service designed specifically for battery cell inspection.

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