Electrode folds for energy storage devices

Abstract

A stacked energy storage device (ESD) has at least two conductive substrates arranged in a stack. Each cell segment may have a first electrode unit having a first active material electrode, a second electrode unit having a second active material electrode, and an electrolyte layer between the active material electrodes. Each active material electrode may have a plurality of folded sections and planar sections to increase the ESD capacity, for example, by increasing number of interfaces within each cell segment.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61 / 147,725, filed Jan. 27, 2009, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 61 / 181,194, filed May 26, 2009, both of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]This invention relates generally to energy storage devices (ESDs) and, more particularly, this invention relates to stacked ESDs with electrode folds.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Bi-polar ESDs may provide an increased discharge rate and a higher voltage potential between their external connectors than standard wound or prismatic cells, and are therefore in high demand for certain applications. Conventional ESDs have been manufactured as either a wound cell structure that has only two electrodes or a standard prismatic cell structure that has many plate sets in parallel. In both of these types, the electrolyte is shared everywhere within the ESD. The wound cell...

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Problems solved by technology

The wound cell structure and prismatic cell structure both suffer from high electrical resistances due to their electrical paths having to cross multiple connections and span significantly long distances to cover the complete circuit from one cell to the next in a series arrangement.

The wound cell electrode must be sufficiently resilient to avoid the stress-related defects associated with winding, as it is bent to a range of curvatures during the winding and packaging process, which can impart structural damage and negatively affect ESD performance.

This increases the size of the ESD and may add a considerable amount of mass to the ESD relative to the resulting increase in the capacity.

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