Thin Film Rechargeable Lithium Battery

Thin Film Rechargeable Lithium Battery

Thin film lithium ion batteries are similar to lithium-ion batteries, but they are composed of thin materials, some only nanometers or micrometers thick, which allow for the finished battery to be just millimeters thick. They have been developed and advanced primarily within the last decade. These batteries consist of a substrate, electrolyte, current collector, anode, cathode, and a charge separator. There has been much research into the determination of the most effective components for this type of battery. It has been shown recently that even ordinary printer paper can be used as a charge separator and a substrate. These thin film batteries are an improvement on the common secondary, or rechargeable, lithium ion batteries in many ways. These batteries exhibit the same voltage and current as their bulky counterparts, but their thinner dimensions allow for greater applications such as making thinner electronic devices, like cell phones and laptops and even implantable medical devices and reducing the weight of common devices that are run on battery power because of the batteries’ high energy density. These batteries can be formed into any shape and they can be stacked, to be used in parallel, thus even further reducing the space needed for a battery.