Terahertz: An Enabling Technology for Lithium-Ion Battery Electrode Optimisation & Manufacturing

该提案涉及太赫兹传感器的进步和在锂离子电池技术的生产环境中实施太赫兹所需的分析。这将与该领域的主要客户和领先的学术合作者一起完成。锂离子电池生产中的一个重要挑战是优化电极涂层（阴极和阳极）的制造工艺，以提高和优化容量，同时降低和控制制造成本。涂层是第二阶段，总体上可以是6个阶段的制造过程。在涂布阶段解决问题和优化生产可以带来更好的产品和巨大的成本节约。目前，仅在欧盟和北美就有60多家锂离子电池生产工厂正在建设中，因此，在不久的将来实施一项有助于解决规模扩大和生产瓶颈的解决方案是非常及时和重要的。决定电极性能的关键性能指标包括涂层密度、厚度和导电性。到目前为止，还没有能够在在线涂覆过程中同时准确和快速地测量所有这三个量的传感器技术。太赫兹传感器提供了一种解决方案，可以在一次测量中提供涂层密度、厚度和电导率。太赫兹传感器在其他在线涂层生产应用中也有成功的记录。通过太赫兹测量的涂层密度和厚度将决定锂离子电池电极上使用的涂层的容量，因此将是通过改变涂层间隙，线速度和涂层生产中的其他关键参数进行优化的最终因素。

This proposal addresses the advances in Terahertz sensors and analysis required to implement Terahertz in a production environment for lithium-ion battery technology. This will be done in conjunction with key customers and leading academic collaborators in the field. An important challenge in lithium-ion battery production is to optimize the manufacturing process for electrode coatings (cathode & anode) to improve and optimise capacity whilst reducing and controlling manufacturing costs. Coatings are the 2nd stage is what can be a 6 stage manufacturing process overall. Addressing issues and optimising production at the coating stage can result in better product and enormous cost savings. With more than 60 plants for lithium-ion battery production currently being built in the EU and North America alone, a solution that helps address scale up and production bottlenecks is very timely and important to implement in the near future. Key performance indicators that determine electrode performance include coating density, thickness and conductivity. To date, there have been no sensor technologies capable of simultaneously measuring all three of these quantities accurately and rapidly during the in-line coating process. Terahertz sensors offer a solution that provides coating density, thickness and conductivity in one measurement. Terahertz sensors also have a successful track record in other in-line coating production applications. The coating density and thickness measured by Terahertz will dictate the capacity of the coatings used on the lithium-ion battery electrodes, and so will be the ultimate factors to optimise by changing the coating gap, line speed and other key parameters in coating production.