Printed Primary Battery in a Rolled-Up Form Factor

Abstract

In battery systems, there are several established form factors targeting mass market applications, like D, C, AA, AAA series, lithium round cells, and coin cells. Besides these standardized batteries, in printed electronics, there are several approaches to realize flat batteries of different material systems fabricating primary and secondary battery types. For a dedicated application in agriculture, a sensor system requires a degradable primary battery. In this paper, the development of a dedicated zinc–carbon battery is described, supplying the sensor application with 4.5 Vnom. The battery has a 170 mm length and a 23 mm outer diameter. while the inner core is open for the antenna system of the application. The active area is up to 161 cm2. The design and manufacturing aspects are described. The rolled-up battery system is fully charged after manufacturing and ready to operate. It may remain inside the degradable sensor system after use in the field.

Keywords

• printed battery
• primary battery
• zinc-carbon battery
• screen printing
• sensor application
• degradable electronics