Hours:
20 hours (5 credits)

Room:
Aula Riunioni del Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione, via G. Caruso 16, Pisa – Ground Floor

Short Abstract:
With the spectacular rise of wearable technologies, R&D on microbatteries is rapidly emerging on the world market. For example, smart electronic textiles require new features and battery designs that traditional battery technologies simply cannot provide. This has opened the door to innovation and added a new dimension to the global competition between battery suppliers. The potential sector that can be impacted includes Internet of Things (IoT), healthcare (skin patches, medical sensors, medical diagnostic devices), smart cards, active and battery-assisted passive RFID, etc... To date, the fabrication of thin-films and/or flexible microbatteries is still in its infancy because it requires the marriage of complementary scientific knowledge and expertise besides several technological challenges to overcome.

This course is dedicated to the principle of electrochemical energy storage for flexible microelectronics. It will be presented recent progress achieved in the field of Li-ion microbatteries. The principles will be explained in terms of basic electrochemistry and thermodynamics. The relationship between properties at the atomic level with the performance of the power sources will be highlighted. Particularly, an insight into the use of nanostructured materials to improve the storage capacity, rate capability, and cyclability will be given.

Course Contents in brief:

• Basics of electrochemistry
  • Redox reactions
  • Thermodynamicss of redox reaction
  • Kinetics of redox reaction (activation and diffusion processes)
  • The Electrochemical interfaces (The Helmholtz Model, the Gouy-Chapmann Model, and the Stern Model)
• Electrochemical analysis techniques for batteries
  • Potentiodynamic and potentiostatic experiments
  • Current and potential transients
  • Cyclic voltammetry
  • Charge and discharge profiles
  • Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy
• Lithium-ion microbatteries
  • Principle and applications
  • The negative electrodes for microbatteries (C, oxydes, Si, …)
  • The positive electrodes for microbatteries (spinels, …)
  • The different electrolytes for microbatteries
  • Towards the next generation of microbatteries
• Microfabrication processes for designing microbatteries
  • Optical lithography
  • Electron- and ion-beam lithography
  • Thin-film deposition of battery components (top down and bottom-up)
  • Recent examples dedicated to the fabrication of energy storage microsystems
  • Flexible microbatteries

Schedule:

Monday 10/04: 9:00 – 12:00, 14:00 – 16:00

Tuesday 11/04: 9:00 – 12:00, 14:00 – 16:00

Wednesday 12/04: 9:00 – 12:00, 14:00 – 16:00

Thursday 13/04: 9:00 – 12:00, 14:00 – 16:00