Lithium micro-battery development at the jet propulsion laboratory

Recent successes in the effort to miniaturize spacecraft components using M EMS technology, integrated passive components, and low power electronics ha ve driven the need for very low power, low profile, low mass micro-power so urces for micro/nanospacecraft applications. Recent work at JPL has focused upon developing thin film/micro-batteries compatible with temperature sens itive substrates. A process to prepare crystalline LiCoO2 films with RF spu ttering and moderate (< 700 degreesC) annealing temperature has been develo ped. Thin film batteries with cathode films prepared with this process have specific capacities approaching the practical limit for LiCoO2, with accep table rate capabilities and discharge voltage profiles. Solid-state micro-s cale batteries have also been fabricated with feature sizes on the order of 50 microns.