Methods for manufacturing batteries and related systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12537206-B2
Application number	US-202217877397-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 29, 2022
Priority date	Jul 29, 2022
Publication date	Jan 27, 2026
Grant date	Jan 27, 2026

Abstract

In one aspect, a method for manufacturing a battery includes forming a battery cell relative to a substrate using a layer-deposition sub-process, with the layer-deposition sub-process including: depositing a layer of first electrode material relative to the substrate; depositing a first layer of electrolyte material on top of the layer of first electrode material; depositing a layer of second electrode material on top of the first layer of electrolyte material; and depositing a second layer of electrolyte material on top of the layer of second electrode material. Additionally, the method includes cycling through the layer-deposition sub-process one or more additional times to form one or more additional battery cells relative to the substrate, with each additional battery cell being formed on top of a previously formed battery cell such that a battery cell stack is created relative to the substrate.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for manufacturing a battery, the method comprising:
forming a battery cell relative to a substrate using a layer-deposition sub-process, the layer-deposition sub-process comprising:
depositing a layer of first electrode material relative to the substrate to form a first electrode of the battery cell;
depositing a first layer of electrolyte material on top of the layer of first electrode material such that the first layer of electrolyte material wraps around an end of the layer of first electrode material;
depositing a layer of second electrode material on top of the first layer of electrolyte material to form a second electrode of the battery cell; and
depositing a second layer of electrolyte material on top of the layer of second electrode material; and
cycling through the layer-deposition sub-process one or more additional times to form one or more additional battery cells relative to the substrate, with each additional battery cell being formed on top of a previously formed battery cell such that a battery cell stack is created relative to the substrate.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:
depositing the layer of first electrode material relative to the substrate comprises depositing the layer of first electrode material relative to the substrate at a first workstation; depositing the first layer of electrolyte material on top of the layer of first electrode material comprises depositing the first layer of electrolyte material on top of the layer of first electrode material at a second workstation; depositing the layer of second electrode material on top of the first layer of electrolyte material comprises depositing the layer of second electrode material on top of the first layer of electrolyte material at a third workstation; and depositing the second layer of electrolyte material on top of the layer of second electrode material comprises depositing the second layer of electrolyte material on top of the layer of second electrode material at a fourth workstation.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the layer-deposition sub-process further comprises:
moving the substrate from the first workstation to the second workstation after depositing the layer of first electrode material relative to the substrate; moving the substrate from the second workstation to the third workstation after positioning the first layer of electrolyte material on top of the layer of first electrode material; and moving the substrate from the third workstation to the fourth workstation after positioning the layer of second electrode material on top of the first layer of electrolyte material.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the layer-deposition sub-process further comprises incrementally lowering the substrate after the deposition of each layer of material relative thereto.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and second layers of electrolyte material comprise first and second layers of surrogate electrolyte material.

6 . The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
curing the first and second layers of surrogate electrolyte material; removing the first and second layers of surrogate electrolyte material from each battery cell of the battery cell stack; and filling inter-electrode gaps previously occupied by the first and second layers of surrogate electrolyte material from each battery cell with a liquid electrolyte.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the liquid electrolyte passively flows into the inter-electrode gaps as the first and second layers of surrogate electrolyte material are being removed from each battery cell of the battery cell stack.

8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
depositing a layer of first electrode material along a side of the battery cell stack to form a first side conduction band of the battery stack, the first side conduction band being connected to the first electrode of each battery cell of the battery cell stack; and depositing a layer of second electrode material along a different side of the battery stack to form a second side conduction band of the battery stack, the second side conduction band being connected to the second electrode of each battery cell of the battery cell stack.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the layers of first electrode material, the first layer of electrolyte material, the layer of second electrode material, or the second layer of electrolyte material is deposited relative to the substrate using a band additive manufacturing (BAM) technique.

10 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising at least partially encasing the battery cell stack.

11 . A method for manufacturing a battery, the method comprising:
forming a battery cell relative to a substrate via execution of a layer-deposition sub-process, the layer-deposition sub-process comprising:
separately depositing a plurality a layers of material one on top of the other relative to the substrate, the plurality of layers of material including a layer of first electrode material, a first layer of electrolyte material, a layer of second electrode material, and a second layer of electrolyte material, the layer of first electrode material being separated from the layer of second electrode material by either the first layer of electrolyte material or the second layer of electrolyte material; and
cycling through the layer-deposition sub-process one or more additional times to form one or more additional battery cells relative to the substrate, with each additional battery cell being formed on top of a previously formed battery cell such that a battery cell stack is created relative to the substrate; wherein the first layer of electrolyte material is deposited such that the first layer of electrolyte material wraps around an end of the layer of first electrode material.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein separately depositing the plurality of layers of material comprises:
depositing the layer of first electrode material relative to the substrate at a first workstation; depositing the first layer of electrolyte material relative to the substrate at a second workstation; depositing the layer of second electrode material relative to the substrate at a third workstation; and depositing the second layer of electrolyte material relative to the substrate at a fourth workstation.

13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the layer-deposition sub-process further comprises:
moving the substrate from the first workstation to the second workstation after depositing the layer of first electrode material relative to the substrate; moving the substrate from the second workstation to the third workstation after positioning the first layer of electrolyte material on top of the layer of first electrode material; and moving the substrate from the third workstation to the fourth workstation after positioning the layer of second electrode material on top of the first layer of electrolyte material.

14 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the layer-deposition sub-process further comprises incrementally lowering the substrate after the deposition of each layer of material relative thereto.

15 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the first and second layers of electrolyte material comprise first and second layers of surrogate electrolyte material.

16 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
removing the first and second layers of surrogate electrolyte material from each battery cell of the battery cell stack; and filling inter-electrode gaps previously occupied by the first and second layers of surro

Assignees

• Battelle Savannah River Alliance Llc

Inventors

• Luo Yuefeng
• James Charles
• Ganesan Prabhu

Classifications

• H01M10/0585

  of accumulators having only flat construction elements, i.e. flat positive electrodes, flat negative electrodes and flat separators · CPC title

• H01M10/0525

  Rocking-chair batteries, i.e. batteries with lithium insertion or intercalation in both electrodes; Lithium-ion batteries · CPC title

• H01M4/0414 Primary

  by screen printing · CPC title

• H01M6/40 Primary

  Printed batteries {, e.g. thin film batteries} · CPC title

• Y02E60/10

  Energy storage using batteries · CPC title