Advanced lithium ion battery charger

A lithium ion battery charger has been developed for four and eight cell batteries or multiples thereof. This charger has the advantage over those using commercial lithium ion charging chips in that the individual cells are allowed to be taper charged at their upper charging voltage rather than be cutoff when all cells of the string have reached the upper charging voltage limit. Since 30-60% of the capacity of lithium ion cells may be restored during the taper charge, this charger has a distinct benefit of fully charging lithium ion batteries by restoring all of the available capacity to all of its cells     

Aerospace lithium solid polymer batteries

Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space and Ultralife Batteries, Inc. are developing batteries for spacecraft and launchers based on Li-ion solid-polymer-electrolyte cell technology. These cells utilize a carbon anode, a manganese dioxide cathode and a solid polymer electrolyte. Electrode and electrolyte layers are thin and flexible. The electrode assembly is easily fabricated into thin, flat prismatic shapes using ordinary lamination techniques and is hermetically sealed in thin foil packaging. Cells ranging in capacity from 4 Ah to 50 Ah have been designed and are in development testing. The packaged cells have specific energies in excess of 100 Wh/kg. Prototype 30 volt batteries have also been designed and are being assembled and tested along with the critical battery cell charge management controllers needed to recharge all cells to full capacity while preventing overvoltage damage. The major results of this development effort are reviewed and the key issues for advancing this technology to flight qualification demonstrations are discussed     

Advanced lithium ion solid polymer electrolyte battery development

Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space (LMMS), Ultralife Batteries, Inc. (UBI), Eagle Picher Technologies, LLC (EPT), Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) and Rentech, Inc. (RTI) are developing lithium ion solid polymer electrolyte (Li-ion SPE) batteries. Under a new Advanced Technology Program (ATP), this team will develop new high-energy density cells and batteries for space and portable electronics applications. These new batteries will utilize new high-energy density anode and cathode active materials developed by SNL and RTI. UBI will incorporate these new materials into an optimized Li-ion SPE electrode laminate. EPT will develop batteries for aerospace applications based on this electrode laminate technology while LMMS will design the battery charge management controller and provide system expertise