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Ohara (TSE: 5218): Glass-Ceramic Oxide Solid Electrolyte Technology
A 90-year-old camera-lens glassmaker turned out to be sitting on one of the few oxide solid electrolytes anyone can actually buy today.
Who they are
Ohara has spent 90 years making optical glass for camera lenses, telescopes, and semiconductor lithography equipment — not the profile you'd expect from a battery-materials company. It's still, in fact, majority-oriented around optics: Seiko Group and Canon are both significant shareholders, a legacy of decades supplying precision glass to Japan's camera industry. The battery angle came later, and almost by accident, when Ohara's glass chemists realized their expertise in engineering ion transport through glass structures had a second application.
What they do
Ohara's relevant product is LICGC (Lithium-Ion Conducting Glass-Ceramic) — an oxide-based solid electrolyte that, unlike the sulfide route most of this chain is racing toward, can be handled in normal atmosphere without the bone-dry rooms sulfide production requires, and carries excellent chemical resistance to water and mild acid. It's sold as formed plates or powder for use as an electrolyte or separator, and Ohara has an established partnership with US-based PolyPlus Battery Company on lithium-metal battery protection layers using the same material. The tradeoff versus sulfide is generally understood to be lower ionic conductivity and a harder sintering process — reasons the industry's bigger near-term commercialization bets (Samsung SDI, Toyota, LG Energy Solution) lean sulfide rather than oxide.
How they make money
Ohara's revenue base is still overwhelmingly its legacy optical-glass business — lens materials, quartz glass, and specialty glass for cameras, telescopes, and semiconductor exposure equipment. LICGC and other battery-adjacent materials are a smaller, higher-growth-potential segment layered on top, sold as a specialty material to battery and materials researchers and select commercial partners rather than at gigawatt-hour industrial scale.
Where it sits in the value chain
Ohara sits in Solid Electrolyte Materials as one of the few named suppliers pursuing the oxide route rather than sulfide — a genuinely thin part of the bench, since most of the chain's momentum (and most of this site's other Stage 1 companies) has concentrated around sulfide electrolyte instead.
The bigger trend
Ohara is a useful reminder that "all-solid-state battery supplier" isn't always a startup with a slide deck — sometimes it's a nine-decade-old glassmaker whose day job is lenses. Its position also highlights the real technology fork running through this whole industry: sulfide (Samsung SDI, Toyota/Idemitsu, LG Energy Solution) versus oxide (QuantumScape, Ohara) versus polymer, each with different manufacturing tradeoffs. Because the sulfide camp has the most 2027–2028 commercialization momentum right now, oxide-route suppliers like Ohara tend to get less headline attention — even while their material's atmosphere-stability advantage keeps it relevant for niche and research applications.
What to watch
- Whether LICGC or a similar oxide electrolyte finds a named commercial-scale automotive customer, rather than remaining primarily a research and niche-application material.
- Whether the sulfide-versus-oxide balance of industry investment shifts at all as more sulfide pilot plants (Samsung SDI, Idemitsu, ISU Specialty Chemical) come online through 2026–2027.
- Developments in the PolyPlus Battery Company partnership, Ohara's most visible named collaboration in the battery space.
Related companies
FAQ
Why does a camera-lens company make solid-state battery materials?
Ohara's core expertise is engineering ion transport and chemical composition within glass structures, developed originally for optical glass. That same materials science translates into LICGC, a lithium-ion conducting glass-ceramic that can serve as a solid electrolyte — a case of adjacent expertise finding a new application rather than a planned pivot.
What's the difference between Ohara's oxide electrolyte and the sulfide electrolytes most of this chain uses?
Oxide electrolytes like LICGC can be handled in normal atmosphere and have strong chemical resistance, but generally have lower ionic conductivity and require higher-temperature sintering to manufacture. Sulfide electrolytes (used by Samsung SDI, Toyota/Idemitsu, and most of this chain's other materials suppliers) offer better conductivity and an easier path to mass manufacturing, but require moisture-free "dry rooms" to produce and handle.
Is Ohara mainly a battery company now?
No. Optical glass — lenses, telescope components, and semiconductor lithography materials — remains Ohara's primary business. Battery-related materials like LICGC are a smaller, specialty segment rather than the company's main revenue driver.