Hermetic weld for a thin film electrochemical cell activated with a solid electrolyte and housed in a ceramic casing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11527795-B2
Application number	US-202016788679-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 12, 2020
Priority date	Jan 8, 2018
Publication date	Dec 13, 2022
Grant date	Dec 13, 2022

Abstract

A miniature electrochemical cell having a total volume that is less than 0.5 cc is described. The cell casing is formed by joining two ceramic casing halves together. One or both casing halves are machined from ceramic to provide a recess that is sized and shaped to contain the electrode assembly. The opposite polarity terminals are metal feedthroughs, such as of gold, and are formed by brazing gold into openings machined into one or both of ceramic casing halves. A thin film metallization, such as of titanium, contacts an edge periphery of each ceramic casing half. The first ceramic casing half is moved into registry with the second ceramic casing half so that the first and second ring-shaped metallizations contact each other. Then, a laser welds through one of the casing halves being a substantially transparent ceramic, for example sapphire, to braze the first and second ring-shaped metallizations to each other to thereby join the first and second casing halves together to form a casing housing the electrode assembly. A solid electrolyte (Li x PO y N z ) activates the electrode assembly.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electrochemical cell, comprising:
a) a ceramic casing, comprising:
i) a first ceramic substrate having a first peripheral edge extending to and meeting with opposed first substrate outer and inner major faces;
ii) a first ring-shaped metallization contacting the first substrate inner major face adjacent to the first substrate peripheral edge;
iii) a second ceramic substrate having a second substrate peripheral edge extending to and meeting with opposed second substrate outer and inner major faces; and
iv) a second ring-shaped metallization contacting the second substrate inner major face adjacent to the second substrate peripheral edge;

b) a first electrode current collector contacting the first substrate inner major face, spaced inwardly from the first ring-shaped metallization;
c) a first electrode active material contacting the first electrode current collector;
d) a second electrode current collector contacting the first substrate inner major face, spaced inwardly from the first ring-shaped metallization, wherein the first electrode current collector is side-by-side but spaced from the second electrode current collector;
e) a solid electrolyte contacting the first electrode active material;
f) a second electrode active material contacting the second electrode current collector and contacting the solid electrolyte opposite the first electrode active material;
g) a first opening extending through the first ceramic substrate, wherein a first metallization comprising titanium or niobium contacts the first ceramic substrate in the first opening and a first gold body hermetically sealed to the first metallization in the first opening conductively contacts the first electrode current collector to thereby serve as a first terminal; and
h) a second opening extending through the first ceramic substrate, wherein a second metallization comprising titanium or niobium contacts the second ceramic substrate in the second opening and a second gold body hermetically sealed to the second metallization in the second opening conductively contacts the second electrode current collector to thereby serve as a second, opposite polarity terminal for the electrochemical cell,
i) wherein the first and second ceramic substrates are hermetically sealed together at the first and second ring-shaped metallizations to thereby hermetically seal the first and second ceramic substrates together to form the casing housing the electrode assembly.

2. The electrochemical cell of claim 1 , wherein the first electrode is a cathode and the second electrode is an anode, or the first electrode is an anode and the second electrode is a cathode.

3. The electrochemical cell of claim 1 , wherein the outer and inner major faces of the first ceramic substrate are both substantially planar.

4. The electrochemical cell of claim 1 , wherein the first and second ring-shaped metallizations are of titanium or niobium.

5. The electrochemical cell of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first and second ceramic substrates has an extending peripheral rim forming the respective first and second substrate peripheral edge, the peripheral rim supporting the respective first and second ring-shaped metallization.

6. The electrochemical cell of claim 1 , wherein the solid electrolyte contacting the first electrode active material opposite the first electrode current collector does not contact the second electrode current collector.

7. The electrochemical cell of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first and second ceramic substrates has an extending peripheral rim forming the respective first and second substrate peripheral edge, the peripheral rim supporting the respective first and second ring-shaped metallization, and wherein, with the first and second ring-shaped metallizations being hermetically sealed to each other to thereby hermetically seal the first and second ceramic substrates together, a sum of a first thickness of the first electrode current collector, a second thickness of the first electrode active material, a third thickness of the solid electrolyte, and a fourth thickness of the second electrode active material is less than the distance from the first ceramic substrate inner major face to the second ceramic substrate inner major face.

8. The electrochemical cell of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first and second ceramic substrates has an extending peripheral rim forming the respective first and second substrate peripheral edge, the peripheral rim supporting the respective first and second ring-shaped metallization, and wherein, with the first and second ring-shaped metallizations comprising titanium and being hermetically sealed to each other to thereby hermetically seal the first and second ceramic substrates together, a sum of a first thickness of the first electrode current collector, a second thickness of the first electrode active material, a third thickness of the solid electrolyte, and a fourth thickness of the second electrode active material is less than the distance from the first ceramic substrate inner major face to the second ceramic substrate inner major face.

9. The electrochemical cell of claim 7 , wherein the sum of the first, second, third, and fourth thicknesses is less than the distance from the first ceramic substrate inner major face to the second ceramic substrate inner major face by about 1 μm to about 100 μm.

10. The electrochemical cell of claim 1 , wherein the first and second current collectors are individually selected from the group of titanium, copper, stainless steel, tantalum, platinum, gold, aluminum, cobalt, molybdenum, nickel, and alloys thereof.

11. The electrochemical cell of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first and second inner major faces of the respective first and second ceramic substrates has a surface roughness that is greater than zero, but less than 50 nm.

12. The electrochemical cell of claim 1 , wherein the solid electrolyte extends between the first and second electrode current collectors.

13. The electrochemical cell of claim 1 , wherein the first and second ceramic substrates are selected from the group of 3 mol % YSZ, polycrystalline alumina, and sapphire.

14. The electrochemical cell of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first and second ceramic substrates is of a substantially transparent sapphire.

15. The electrochemical cell of claim 1 , wherein the anode active material is selected from the group of lithium, Li—Si, Li—Sn, Li—Al, Li—B and Li—Si—B alloys, and wherein the cathode active material is selected from the group of LiCoO 2 , LiMnO 2 , LiMn 2 O 4 , LiFePO 4 , Ag 2 V 4 O 11 , V 2 O 5 , and mixtures thereof.

16. The electrochemical cell of claim 1 , wherein the solid electrolyte comprises Li x PO y N z .

17. The electrochemical cell of claim 1 having a total volume that is less than 0.5 cc.

18. The electrochemical cell of claim 1 , wherein gold does not reside between the first and second ring-shaped metallizations hermetically sealed to each other.

19. An electrochemical cell, comprising:
a) a ceramic casing, comprising:
i) a first sapphire substrate having a first peripheral edge extending to and meeting with opposed first substrate outer and inner major faces;
ii) a first ring-shaped metallization contacting the first sapphire substrate inner major face adjacent to the first substrate peripheral edge;
iii) a second ceramic substrate having a second substrate peripheral rim extending to and meeting with opposed second substrate outer and inner major faces; and
iv) a

Assignees

• Greatbatch Ltd

Inventors

• Rubino Robert S
• Seitz Keith W
• Tang Xiaohong
• Sutay Todd C
• Hohl Brian P
• Moschiano Holly Noelle
• Das Biswa P
• Ali Afsar
• Biswas Sourabh
• Freitag Gary
• Dianetti David
• Yun Ho-Chul
• Marzano Thomas

Classifications

• H01M50/562

  characterised by the material · CPC title

• H01M50/186

  characterised by the disposition of the sealing members · CPC title

• H01M50/157

  Inorganic material · CPC title

• H01M50/117

  Inorganic material · CPC title

• H01M50/147

  Lids or covers · CPC title