Where FocalSpec's EIC Accelerator Battery Sensor Stands Today

The 2016 Samsung smartphone recall was traced to flaws in battery electrodes too small for factory inspection to catch. FocalSpec, a 2009 spin-off of Finland's VTT research centre based in Oulu, pitched the European Union a fix: its line confocal 3D sensors, which measure surfaces to below a micron, made fast enough to check every metre of electrode on a battery line moving at 3 metres per second. In the April 2019 round of the EIC SME Instrument Phase 2, the Horizon 2020 pilot of what became the EIC Accelerator, the Commission selected FocalSpec Oy as the sole beneficiary of the project, and CORDIS records an EU contribution of €2,494,800 towards a €3,564,000 budget.

The project started on 1 October 2019. By the end of that month the Dutch listed group TKH had bought all of FocalSpec's shares, according to TKH's 2019 annual report. CORDIS states that the EU project was "terminated on 13 February 2020", four and a half months into a planned two years.

What Is Left of FocalSpec

FocalSpec no longer exists under its own name. The Finnish Trade Register (YTJ) shows that FocalSpec Oy became LMI Technologies Oy on 17 March 2020 and kept "Focalspec" as an auxiliary trade name; the company is still registered at the same Oulu address. When the deal was announced on 1 November 2019, TKH said Oulu would become LMI's global competence centre for line confocal imaging and continue product development there, according to I-Connect007 and Tech.eu. The price was not disclosed. TKH's annual report says FocalSpec had 55 employees and about €6.5 million in annual turnover, and that part of the price depends on an earn-out.

The Oulu company still files accounts, and they show a much smaller business. According to Finder and Asiakastieto, revenue was €16.4 million in 2021, €9.88 million in 2022 and €3.88 million in 2025, with 19 employees and a net profit of €54,000 in 2025. The two sources disagree on 2021 operating profit (€4.61 million at Finder, €5.73 million at Asiakastieto). The accounts do not say whether the fall reflects weaker sales or sales being booked by other LMI companies.

The FocalSpec brand is fading from LMI's own channels. The old focalspec.com domain redirects to an LMI product page that returned "page not found" on 8 October 2026, and LMI's support menu now lists "FocalSpec LCI" under legacy products. The line confocal sensors LMI sells today carry its Gocator name.

The Technology: Seeing Burrs at Line Speed

Line confocal imaging projects a line of broadband light through optics that focus each colour at a different height. Only light reflected from a surface exactly in focus passes back through to the camera, so the colour that arrives gives the surface height. Because it scans a whole line at once and reads layers beneath transparent coatings, FocalSpec said it could measure 3D topography, 2D intensity and subsurface structure together, at up to 27 million data points per second and 70 nanometre repeatability, according to Wiley Industry News.

Before the award, its sensors were used mainly to measure glass and ceramic parts of mobile devices, most of which are made or assembled in China. In May 2018 the company set up a Chinese subsidiary by merging with its distributor there, and its then chief executive Harri Leinonen said FocalSpec had "several industry-scale projects, which will multiply our sales", according to I-Connect007. The EU project was meant to carry the method into lithium-ion battery factories, where laser line scanners, the usual inline tool, cannot resolve submicron burrs on electrode edges, the project summary says.

What the Project Promised, and What CORDIS Shows

FocalSpec told the EU it would reach technology readiness level 9, a product proven in operation, by raising sensor speed from 4,000 to over 100,000 3D profiles per second, and would launch next-generation online sensors for battery and 3D cover glass production. Its only periodic report, covering October 2019 to September 2020, describes what was done before termination. A prototype "super high speed" confocal sensor was designed, built and preliminarily tested, with optics, mechanics and electronics but no signal processing firmware, and reached up to 150,000 lines per second. The report puts the company's existing products at 10,000 to 16,000 lines per second, which differs from the 4,000 profiles per second in the project objective. It says patenting of the new method had started; no resulting patent could be identified for this article. Work on a version for 3D glass and talks with two optical component suppliers were not completed. The report concludes that "due to the premature termination of the project, insufficient work was completed to claim achievements beyond state of the art".

1. High-speed sensor prototypeDeliveredBuilt and preliminarily tested at up to 150,000 lines per second, per the CORDIS report; no independent test is public.
2. TRL 9 sensor at over 100,000 profiles per secondNot deliveredNo such product announced; LMI's line confocal sensors launched since run at 10 to 16 kHz.
3. 3D cover glass versionNot deliveredFeasibility simulation only; component work "not completed prior to closing the project".
4. Battery sector commercial launchUnverifiedLMI markets line confocal sensors for EV battery work, but no battery customer for them is named.
5. Two-year projectCut shortTerminated on 13 February 2020, after four and a half months.

CORDIS does not give a reason for the termination, and neither TKH nor LMI has commented on it publicly. The SME Instrument was open only to small and medium-sized enterprises, and the takeover made FocalSpec part of a group whose turnover TKH put at €1,507.9 million on a pro forma basis for 2019. Whether the change of ownership caused the termination is not stated in any public source, and how much of the €2.49 million was paid before the project ended is not public either.

What Came After the Award

LMI has kept selling line confocal technology. In May 2022 it launched the Gocator 5500 series, which brought line confocal imaging into its Gocator smart sensor family with scan rates of "over 10 kHz" with PC acceleration, aimed at multi-layer, transparent and curved parts such as phone glass, according to LMI's announcement. In April 2024 it added the Gocator 4000 coaxial line confocal series for semiconductor, consumer electronics and EV battery applications, with speeds of "16 kHz+" at limited measurement range and "4+ kHz" at full range, according to Opli. Neither announcement names Oulu or FocalSpec, so how much of the development came from the Finnish team cannot be confirmed from public sources.

The speed figures are the core of the gap. Both launches are in the range of FocalSpec's products before the project, not the hundredfold jump the EU paid to start. The 150,000-line prototype has not appeared in any product announcement found for this article.

Why Europe Should Care

Battery safety and European cell production are both EU policy priorities. The European Battery Alliance aims to build a competitive battery value chain in Europe, and the EU Batteries Regulation of 2023 sets safety and performance requirements for batteries placed on the EU market. Inline inspection that catches electrode defects before cells are assembled is part of the tooling such factories need, and FocalSpec's pitch was that a European supplier could provide it.

The outcome cuts both ways for strategic autonomy. The technology and its Oulu team stayed in Europe, inside a Dutch group, with a Canadian-headquartered subsidiary, LMI, as the brand. But the specific capability the EU funded, a sensor fast enough for gigafactory electrode lines, has not been announced as a product, and the project, terminated after four and a half months, produced a prototype rather than a product.

The Verdict

TKH Group, LMI Technologies and the EIC have not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records, company statements and EU project data, linked throughout.