Formable microbatteries by electroforming: fabrication and modeling

Formable batteries are batteries that take a desired form. For small devices, fitting a battery into the available space will be a game changer. The available microbatteries today have a given coin, cylinder or flat shape, limiting the capacity to what fits. If one could form the battery to the space available, the entire space could be foreseen with battery capacity.  In this PhD topic, you will work on novel fabrication techniques to form the battery shape. A novel type of nanostructured electrode with a unique combination of surface area, porosity, and mechanical stability was developed at imec. This electrode can be used as a current collector for Li-ion battery electrodes by conformally coating the structure with battery active materials. The nanomesh current collector is made by a combination of anodization and electroplating, leading to flat and planar nanomesh electrodes. In this project, you will use electroforming techniques to make the currently collector in the desired shape. The electroforming technique uses molds to form the final component made by plating. Good control of the current distribution is essential in these processes which can be predicted by modeling. The formed current collectors will be used to fabricate the Li-ion microbatteries using coating processes already developed in the group.