A research group of Keon Jae Lee, a professor at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, has created a superior-performance flexible all-solid-state battery, a critical energy source to power flexible displays.
This shows a blue LED emission operated by flexible solid state battery (credit: The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)
Extensive research is ongoing to develop flexible batteries with high thermal stability and power density thanks to the technological advancement in thin and light flexible display. Even if rechargeable lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have been considered as a major high-performance flexible energy source, suitable electrodes for flexible LIBs are limited to a few materials. The inferior performance of LIBs is also an issue that limits their use in flexible consumer electronics like rollable displays.
Flexible Battery
Moreover, high-temperature treatment is essential for lithium transition metal oxides, which are utilized as cathode electrodes. However, this high-temperature treatment is not possible on flexible polymer substrates. To address these challenges, Professor Lee's group has created a superior-performance flexible LIB fabricated with high density inorganic thin films utilizing a universal transfer method.
An easier physical delamination of sacrificial substrates is used to transfer the thin film LIB created on a mica substrate having high annealing temperature onto polymer substrates. Professor Lee stated that the development of a high performance flexible thin film battery will speed up the development of advanced completely bendable electronic systems featuring existing flexible components, including LED, memory and display.
At present, Professor Lee’s group is studying a laser lift-off technology to enable the volume manufacturing of 3D stacking structures and bendable LIBs to improve charge density of batteries.