| AVS 59th Annual International Symposium and Exhibition | |
| Energy Frontiers Focus Topic | Thursday Sessions |
| Session EN+NS-ThM |
| Session: | Batteries and Fuel Cells |
| Presenter: | Y.-C. Perng, University of California, Los Angeles |
| Authors: | Y.-C. Perng, University of California, Los Angeles J. Cho, University of California, Los Angeles D. Membreno, University of California, Los Angeles N. Cirigliano, University of California, Los Angeles B. Dunn, University of California, Los Angeles J.P. Chang, University of California, Los Angeles |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Lithium (Li)-ion batteries have drawn much attention for their outstanding performance in portable electronics applications with the potentials to function as a power source for further minizaturized devices, including micro-systems through the utilization of 3-dimensional electrodes based on high aspect ratio pillars. To realize this potential, an ultra-thin and highly conformal electrolyte layer is needed to coat the 3D electrode array. The ionic conductor lithium aluminosilicate (LiAlSiO4) synthesized by atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a promising electrolyte material for 3D battery applications not only due to its high ionic conductivity along its c-axis resulting from channels formed by the alternating tetrahedra of aluminum-oxygen (Al-O) and silicon-oxygen (Si-O), but also expected to provide similar improved cell cyclability, as reported in the preliminary studies of ultra-thin metal-oxide ALD coatings on electrodes.
The self-limiting characteristic of ALD allows for precise control of thickness and composition of complex oxides and results in a highly conformal and pinhole-free coating suitable in 3D micro-battery applications or electrolyte surface coatings. The metal precursors used in this work are tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), trimethylaluminum (TMA) and lithium t-butoxide (LTB). These precursors, along with water vapor as the oxidant, were used to deposit SiO2, Al2O3 and Li2O, with the deposition rates in the range of 0.8~2Å/cycle, respectively. The deposition rate of stoichiometric LiAlSiO4 was ~20Å/cycle at a temperature of 290°C. The concentration of each metal element in LixAlySizO (LASO) thin films was found to correlate closely to ALD cycles and the associated incubation times. The crystallinity of the films after post-deposition rapid thermal annealing (RTA) was a function of cation atomic percentage. Li-ionic conductivities and the activation energy of as-deposited LASO films with respect to lithium contents as well as their relation to the film thickness were studied. The LASO ALD coating on 3D features, such as NWs and nanopaticles (NPs), were confirmed to be conformal and uniform by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) imaging. The cell performance as well as cyclability enhancement from LixAlySizO was investigated for a silicon-nanowire 3D microbattery, where SiNW was used as an anode, to explore the potentials of a solid-state SiNW battery with a solid-oxide electrolyte.