Design and Endurance of Batteries with High Power/Energy

The increasingly wide range of small devices that consume stored electrical energy, has placed additional demands for secondary batteries which have improved power/energy, while retaining long cycle life. An additional facet to the demands are an increasingly blurred distinction between batteries and the devices that use them. This is especially true of emerging microelectonics, particularly those which are intended to be autonomous; i.e. those which have their own power supply. Batteries must have minimal volume, while being able to deliver pulses of power that can last from ms – seconds. Additionally, they must often absorb recharge at high rates. Electrode and cell designs must be altered, to minimize cell degradation under the strenuous demands of miniature electronics. We report design concepts for accomplishing these goals, and the factors which affect the life of two types of battery designs under pulsed charge and discharge. Both concepts include microfabricated, microscopic Ni/Zn batteries which are intended to be integrated into low voltage microcircuits and reconfigurable battery systems that are designed to operate in high voltage mode while being charged at low voltage.