Yaroslav E. Romanyuk, EMPA - Swiss Federal Laboratories of Materials Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland
Thin-film batteries (TFBs, sometimes referred to as microbatteries) are solid-state batteries that are manufactured by PVD processes such a sputtering and thermal evaporation. Microbatteries are intended to power wireless sensors, smart cards, active RFID tags, and consumer electronics. In my talk, I will present some of the latest research highlights on thin-film cathodes, solid electrolyte separators, and anodes that can be employed in TFBs. The main limitation of TFBs is their limited capacity, as the active layers are only micrometers thin. One possible way to overcome this limitation is to stack several individual batteries, thus increasing capacity and total voltage while keeping fast charge rates. We have demonstrated an experimental proof-of-concept consisting of two monolithically stacked all-sputtered TFBs cells and will discuss upscaling and commercialization of this battery technology.