Greatbatch Ltd.

Wilson Greatbatch Ltd.

Wilson Greatbatch Technologies, Inc.

Tina L Urso

Dominick J Frustaci

Paul T Hallifax

Kenneth Moceri

Michael Guidi

Philip S Wutz

Raymond S Konopa

Robert D Miller

Daniel Baumer

John Skoumpris

Scott Hall

Deborah McNally

Brian Mau

Esther S Takeuchi

Gary Freitag

David M Spillman

Kenneth B Talamine

Gregory A Voss

Shenandoah Hennrich

Shenandoah Henrich

Mark Visbisky

Bruce Meyer

A closure system for the electrolyte fill port of an electrochemical cell is described. A cell header has an electrolyte fill port comprising an upper opening sidewall extending from a header upper surface to an intermediate ledge located part-way through the header thickness. The ledge extends from a lower edge of the upper opening sidewall to an upper edge of a lower opening sidewall, the lower opening sidewall extending to the header lower surface. With respect to an axis of the electrolyte fill port, the upper opening sidewall has a first radius rand the lower opening sidewall has a second radius rat the ledge, the lower opening sidewall extending downwardly and inwardly along the axis from the second radius rto a third radius rat the header lower surface. The second radius rat the ledge is greater than the third radius rat the header lower surface. A closure system for an electrolyte fill port comprises a lower closure member secured to the lower opening sidewall by a lower weld; and an upper closure member secured to the upper opening sidewall by an upper weld. Importantly, the lower opening sidewall is provided with rifling.

Closure system for the electrolyte fill port of an electrochemical cell

An electrochemical cell comprising a cathode material contacted to a perforated current collector having a portion left uncovered and an anode material contacted to an anode current collector is described. A separator sheet segregating the anode from direct contact with the cathode is folded back upon itself along a crease with an upper portion at least partially sealed to a lower portion along an aligned peripheral edge to form an envelope. A first envelope portion houses the cathode having the uncovered portion of the cathode current collector spaced from the crease and a second envelope portion houses the anode. The first envelope portion is sealed to the second envelope portion through the uncovered perforations of the cathode current collector to lock the anode aligned with the cathode. The anode and cathode are then wound into a jellyroll electrode assembly housed in a cylindrical casing and activated with an electrolyte.

Electrochemical cell having a pocket separator design

A method of manufacturing an electrochemical cell is described. A separator sheet segregating the anode from direct contact with the cathode is folded back upon itself along a crease with an upper portion at least partially sealed to a lower portion along an aligned peripheral edge to form an envelope. A first envelope portion houses the cathode having an uncovered portion of the cathode current collector spaced from the crease and a second envelope portion houses the anode. The first envelope portion is sealed to the second envelope portion through uncovered perforations of the cathode current collector to lock the anode aligned with the cathode. The anode and cathode are then wound into a jellyroll electrode assembly housed in a cylindrical casing and activated with an electrolyte.

Method for providing an electrochemical cell having a pocket seperator design

An electrochemical cell is described. The cell comprises a cathode material contacted to a perforated current collector having a portion left uncovered and an anode material contacted to an anode current collector. The anode comprises first and second strips positioned on opposite sides of the cathode, which is also in the form of a strip, but one that is much longer than each of the anode strips. Proximal ends of the anode strips reside adjacent to where the cathode is secured to a terminal pin/sleeve assembly. Distal ends of the anode strips are adjacent to the opposed ends of the cathode strip. A separator sheet segregating the anode from direct contact with the cathode provides an upper portion at least partially sealed to a lower portion along an aligned peripheral edge and through the uncovered perforations of the cathode current collector to lock the cathode in position. The anode and cathode are then wound into a galaxy electrode assembly housed in a cylindrical casing and activated with an electrolyte.

Electrochemical cell having a galaxy wind design

Heat generation is an important concern of electrochemical cell design. The invention is directed toward a cell design that efficiently and responsively dissipates heat by transfer from the cell to the casing through multiple parallel connections. This invention relates to battery designs having cell stacks in which both the anode and cathode are of a plate structure and the anode plates are independently connected to the cell casing or connected thereto via a bridge or bus. They may also consist of cell assemblies of wound electrode configurations or plate-serpentine configurations having multiple parallel connections to the cell casing.

Electrochemical cell designs with anode plates and connections which facilitate heat dissipation

A primary lithium electrochemical cell housed in a casing having a curved side wall intermediate opposed generally planar face walls is described. The cell comprises an anode and a cathode that each has a plurality of face portions joined together by connecting portions. The opposite polarity face portions and connecting portions are aligned with each other and then the electrodes are wound to provide an electrode assembly that fits in the casing. Regardless whether the cell is balanced as either an anode-limited or cathode-limited configuration, however, it is desirable to have the active material of one electrode face portion directly facing the electrode material of the counter electrode face portion. This means that the dimensional extent of the facing electrodes should be as close to each other in areas as possible to match the desired anode- or cathode-limited balance. The same is true for the connecting portions. The cell is of a high energy density for an implantable biomedical device.

Primary electrochemical cell having scalloped electrodes

The present invention relates to a current collector for an electrochemical cell. The current collector is a substrate having a grid pattern comprising open areas converging at an imaginary focal point on a connector tab of the substrate. The openings are grouped into distinct regions with the larger openings immediately adjacent to the connector tab and the smaller openings distant there from. This provides more conductive pathways at greater distances from the tab.

Electrochemical cell current collector having openings of progressively larger sizes converging at a tab

An electrode assembly constructed of continuous anode and cathode electrodes that are overlaid in overlapping fashion and wound into a cell stack suitable for prismatic and cuboidal-shaped cases. The cathode electrode strip has some regions where the electrode material is pressed to a high density and has some regions where the active material is substantially removed from the current collector screen.

Method for providing a current collector with bare regions to facilitate winding

A drop-fill assembly and method for uniformly distributing electrode active particles onto a current collector is described. The drop-fill assembly comprises a conduit containing two or more spaced apart sifting screens. A funnel is located upstream of the sifting screens to distribute an electrode active powder into the center of the conduit with a downward velocity. The mesh of any one sifting screen is out of direct alignment with respect to the next or previous screen. The electrode active powder is poured into the funnel and distributed across the conduit's cross-section as it bounces off and passes through the misaligned sifting screens. The powder exits at the bottom of the conduit lying in a thin, uniform layer on a current collector, taking on the shape of the desired electrode due to the boundary of the conduit and pressing fixtures located above and beneath the current collector. The powder layer is then pressed on to the current collector to produce an electrode.

Device and method for uniformly distributing electrode particles

An alkali metal secondary electrochemical cell, and preferably a lithium ion cell, provided with a removable gas relief valve, is described. The gas release valve is positioned on the casing, in fluid flow communication between the inside thereof and the exterior. This gas release valve serves to eliminate cell gases that build up inside the casing during the cell's formation stage. Once the lithium-ion cell has completed formation, the gas release valve is removed and replaced with a hermetic closure. Removal of the gas release valve and sealing of the cell takes place in an environment in which no outside gas is capable of being introduced inside the casing. The cell can also be provided in a tank filled with inert gas and a filter which separates the cell gas from the inert gas. When cell formation is completed, the cell hermetically sealed.

Apparatus for releasing gases from rechargeable lithium electrochemical cells during the formation stage of manufacturing

Cathode assembly with bare current collector regions to facilitate winding

An electrode assembly constructed of continuous anode and cathode electrodes that are overlaid in overlapping fashion and wound into a cell stack suitable for prismatic or other non-cylindrically-shaped cases. The cathode electrode strip has some regions where the electrode material is pressed to a high density and has some regions where the active material is pressed to a lower density, such that the lower density regions correspond to the bend regions in the wound cell stack.

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East Amherst, NY, United States of America

Tina L Urso