Towards all solid-state 3D thin-film batteries for durable and fast storage by imec

An excellent overview on all solid-state 3D thin-film batteries where Philippe Vereecken principal scientist at imec, and associate professor at KU Leuven explains "One way to make Li-ion batteries more durable, safer, smaller and in particularly faster, is a transition towards all solid-state 3D thin-film Li-ion batteries." The article can be find on page 30 in the May 2014 issue of Solid State Technology. UPDATE: this paper is also available here as html Solid State Technology.

 

 

Schematic of a planar (a) and 3D thin-film (b) battery with the following stack: current collector/ electrode/solid electrolyte/electrode/current collector. (Source: Solid State Technology)

 

 

ALD processes for solid state lithium batteries has been and is an active field of research at Oslo and Helsinki University. Below is a recent review from Ola Nilsen et al giving a great overview on the ALD precursor and processes that have been investigated so far.

Atomic layer deposition of functional films for Li-ion microbatteries

Ola Nilsen, Ville Miikkulainen, Knut B. Gandrud, Erik Østreng, Amund Ruud, Helmer Fjellvag
Volume 211, Issue 2, pages 357–367, February 2014

The lithium ion battery concept is a promising energy storage system, both for larger automotive systems and smaller mobile devices. The smallest of these, the microbatteries, are commonly based on the all-solid state concept consisting of thin layers of electroactive materials separated by a solid state electrolyte. The fact that solid state electrolytes are required puts rather severe constraints on the materials in terms of electronic and ionic conductivity, as well as lack of pinholes otherwise leading to self-discharge. The atomic layer deposition (ALD) technology is especially suitable for realization of such microbatteries for the Li-ion technology. ALD has an inherent nature to deposit conformal and pinhole free layers on complex geometrical shapes, an architecture most commonly adopted for microbattery designs. The current paper gives an overview of ALD-type deposition processes of functional battery materials, including cathodes, electrolytes, and anodes with the aim of developing all-solid-state batteries. Deposition of Li-containing materials by the ALD technique appears challenging and the status of current efforts is discussed.