Holographic patterning of high-performance on-chip 3D lithium-ion microbatteries

Abstract

As sensors, wireless communication devices, personal health monitoring systems, and autonomous microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) become distributed and smaller, there is an increasing demand for miniaturized integrated power sources. Although thinfilm batteries are well-suited for on-chip integration, their energy and power per unit area are limited. Three-dimensional electrode designs have potential to offer much greater power and energy per unit area; however, efforts to date to realize 3D microbatteries have led to prototypes with solid electrodes (and therefore low power) or mesostructured electrodes not compatible with manufacturing or on-chip integration. Here, we demonstrate an on-chip compatible method to fabricate high energy density (6.5 μWh cm −2 ·μm −1 ) 3D mesostructured Li-ion microbatteries based on LiMnO 2 cathodes, and NiSn anodes that possess supercapacitor-like power (3,600 μW cm −2 ·μm −1 peak). The mesostructured electrodes are fabricated by combining 3D holographic lithography with conventional photolithography, enabling deterministic control of both the internal electrode mesostructure and the spatial distribution of the electrodes on the substrate. The resultant full cells exhibit impressive performances, for example a conventional light-emitting diode (LED) is driven with a 500-μA peak current (600-C discharge) from a 10-μm-thick microbattery with an area of 4 mm 2 for 200 cycles with only 12% capacity fade. A combined experimental and modeling study where the structural parameters of the battery are modulated illustrates the unique design flexibility enabled by 3D holographic lithography and provides guidance for optimization for a given application.energy storage | microelectronics | miniature batteries | lithium-ion batteries | interference lithography M icroscale devices typically use power supplied off-chip because of difficulties in miniaturizing energy storage technologies (1, 2). However, a miniaturized on-chip battery would be highly desirable for applications including autonomous microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)-based actuators, microscale wireless sensors, distributed monitors, and portable and implantable medical devices (3-8). For many of the applications, high energy density, high power density (charge and/or discharge), or some combination of high energy and power densities is required, all characteristics which can be difficult to achieve in a microbattery due to size and footprint restrictions, and process compatibilities with the other steps required for device fabrication. Although 2D thin-film microbatteries (typical thickness of a few micrometers) can deliver high power, they require large (often cm 2 ) footprints to provide reasonable energies (9). Making the electrodes thicker boosts the theoretical areal energy density but the resultant increases in electron and ion diffusion lengths reduce the effective power and energy densities. Efforts to improve microbattery performance have focused on increasing the electrode surface area and active material loading...

3D Printing Fiber Electrodes for an All‐Fiber Integrated Electronic Device via Hybridization of an Asymmetric Supercapacitor and a Temperature Sensor

“…This technique has already been developed for a wide range of applications, such as energy, engineered composites, microfluidics, biotechnology, and electronic devices 23, 24, 25. Very recently, interesting studies have emerged.…”

Holographic Fabrication of 3D Nanostructures

“…[113] spatial distribution of the electrodes on the substrate. [127] The SU-8 3D nanostructures generated on the surface of indium tin oxide could be divided into several partitions to define battery electrodes patterns. The electrodeposition of nickel (Ni) within SU-8 structures and the subsequent removal of the polymeric patterns using oxygen reactive ion etching produced 3D Ni patterns.…”

“…An SEM image of the lithiated MnO 2 (LMO) cathode and the Ni-Sn anode is shown in Figure 9c. [127] The capacities of microbatteries with different C rates are shown in Figure 9d. More than 80% of the initial capacity was maintained after 100 charging/discharging cycles.…”

“…c,d) Reproduced with permission. [127] Copyright 2015, National Academy of Sciences. e,f) Reproduced with permission.…”

Performance Modeling and Design of Ultra-High Power Microbatteries

“…[1][2][3][4] Recent improvements in electrode architectures, materials, and fabrication technologies have enabled microbatteries with power densities as high as 7.4 mW cm −2 μm −1 , which is about 100 times greater than power densities provided by larger conventional format batteries. [5][6][7][8][9] The ultrahigh power densities were achieved by the simultaneous reduction of ion and electron transport resistances across the anode, cathode, and electrolyte. Fabricating electrodes with increasingly fine nanostructures that provide shorter ion and electron transport paths has been the main strategy for reducing transport resistances.…”