Battery Cell Assembly With Pressure Pads for Swelling Detection

The patent transitions from a vertical stacking arrangement (increasing height) to a horizontal planar arrangement (increasing area). Multiple battery modules are arranged side-by-side in a horizontal configuration, allowing the system to achieve higher operating voltage through series connections without increasing the vertical dimension. This dimensional change resolves the contradiction by moving the scaling direction from vertical to horizontal.

The current collector is segmented into multiple independent current collector elements, with each element corresponding to a specific battery module. This segmentation allows each current collector element to handle only the current from its associated module, simplifying the overall current distribution architecture. The segmented approach eliminates the need for complex three-dimensional current distribution while maintaining the horizontal arrangement benefits.

The current collector system is divided into multiple independent current collector elements, each thermally coupled to its corresponding battery module. This segmentation creates multiple independent heat dissipation pathways, allowing heat to be efficiently conducted from each module through its dedicated current collector element to the heat dissipation plate. The segmented architecture eliminates the thermal bottleneck that would occur with a single shared current collector.