Abstract:
A do-it-yourself (DIY) thin film battery provides battery assembling components suitable for separate storage and easy fabrication. With through hole plating or sidewall plating, the current collectors of the anode and cathode, extend from one side of the substrates to the other to facilitate electric coupling with the electronic product outside. Through either soldering or direct contact with conductive tapes, the battery components mount with each other. Thus, the battery components can be combined to have batteries of various voltages and capacities via series or parallel connection means without extra circuits.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   1. Field of Invention 
   The present invention pertains to a thin film battery and particularly to a thin film battery where components thereof may be separately stored and assembled by a consumer. 
   2. Related Art 
   For an electronic product, a battery is often an apparent choice of power source. In the case of a small appliance, the adopted battery with desired specification may be available in some shops. The thin film batteries are also acquired for products like cellular phones, personal digital assistant (PDAs) and the like. 
   Nevertheless, the prior art of batteries has its disadvantage. Refer to  FIG. 1 , the typical prior battery is obtained by sequentially stacking an anode substrate  10   a , an anode current collector  11   a , an anode active layer  13   a , a separator  14 , a cathode active layer  13   b , a cathode current collector  11   b  and a cathode  10   b  together. Then, the thus formed stack is packaged and sealed to complete the formation of a battery. Since the conventional battery is fabricated as a single body with fixed specification, once connected in parallel or series, external circuits are necessary to be used between or among the batteries to meet the connection requirement. 
   Furthermore, a typical battery is a perishable product and deteriorates as a result of chemical action that proceeds during storage. The self-discharge characteristics of conventional battery systems cause a reduction in capacity. In order to extend the shelf life of a battery, it is necessary to minimize the self-discharge reaction in the battery system. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   In response to the aforementioned problems for the prior battery, present invention provides a thin film battery where components thereof may be separately stored and assembled by a consumer. 
   The do-it-yourself (DIY) thin film battery primarily comprises an anodic component, a cathodic component and a solid electrolyte film. In the battery, the anodic component can be individually stored and comprises an anode substrate, an anode current collector, an anode current collector extension and an anode active layer. The anode substrate has a first side and a second side at which the anode current collector and the anode current collector extension are respectively located, and both collectors are electrically connected. The anode active layer is disposed at an outer surface of the anode current collector, which is closely contacted with the solid electrolyte film. 
   The cathodic component can also be individually stored and comprises a cathode substrate, a cathode current collector, a cathode current collector extension and a cathode active layer. The cathode substrate has a first side and a second side at which the cathode current collector and the cathode current collector extension are respectively located, and the cathode current collector extension is electrically connected with the cathode current collector. The cathode active layer is disposed at an outer surface of the cathode current collector, which is also closely contacted with the solid electrolyte film. 
   The present invention achieves the advantages of allowing the components of the thin film battery to be separately stored and assembled by a consumer. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The present invention will be fully understood from the detailed description given hereinbelow for illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present invention, and wherein: 
       FIG. 1  illustrates a prior battery structure. 
       FIG. 2  illustrates a cross section of the first embodiment according to the present invention. 
       FIG. 3  illustrates a use of the first embodiment according to the present invention. 
       FIG. 4  illustrates a cross section of the second embodiment according to the present invention. 
       FIG. 5  illustrates a cross section of the third embodiment according to the present invention. 
       FIG. 6  illustrates a cross section of the fourth embodiment according to the present invention. 
       FIG. 7  illustrates a cross section of the fifth embodiment according to the present invention. 
       FIG. 8  illustrates a cross section of the sixth embodiment according to the present invention. 
       FIG. 9  illustrates a cross section of the seventh embodiment according to the present invention. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
   Refer to  FIGS. 2 and 3 , the first embodiment of the present invention comprises an anodic component  25 , cathodic component  26  and solid electrolyte film  27 , where: 
   (1) The Anodic Component  25  Comprises 
   A. an anode substrate  20   a  having a first side (the bottom side in the corresponding drawing) and a second side (the top side in the corresponding drawing), and being made of plastic material layer such as PE, PP, PET or metal foil, or paper. 
   B. an anode current collector  11   a , being a metal and located at the first side of the anode substrate  20   a.    
   C. an anode current collector extension  21   a  located at the second side of the anode substrate  20   a , being electrically connected to the current collector  11   a  by a through hole plating  22   a  or a sidewall plating (not illustrated in the drawing) of the anode substrate  20   a  so that the anode current collector extension  21   a  may serve as an extended anode to be electrically coupled with an external electronic device. 
   D. an anode active layer  13   a  located at the surface of the anode current collector  11   a , being made of electroactive metals such as Zn, Ni, Ag and Cd. 
   (2) The Cathodic Component  26  Comprises 
   A. a cathode substrate  20   b  having a first side (the top side in the corresponding drawing) and a second side (the bottom side in the corresponding drawing) and being made of metal foil or plastic material layer such as PE, PP, PET, or paper. 
   B. a cathode current collector  11   b  located at the first side of the cathode substrate  20   b.    
   C. a cathode current collector extension  21   b  located at the second side of the cathode substrate  20   b , being electrically connected to the cathode current collector  11   b  by a through hole plating  22   b  or a sidewall plating (not illustrated in the drawing) of the cathode substrate  20   b  so that the cathode current collector extension  21   b  may be electrically coupled with the afro-mentioned external electronic device. Noting that the amount of the through hole plating  22   b  is not limited and the through hole plating  22   b  or the sidewall plating will not be used when the anode substrate  20   a  or cathode substrate  20   b  are made of metal. 
   D. a cathode active layer  13   b  located at the surface of the cathode current collector  11   b  being made of MnO 2 , C, AB 5  or Ag 2 O. 
   (3) A Solid Electrolyte Film  27  Being Made of PEO, PVA or PAA, or the Like 
   The anodic component  25 , the cathodic component  26  and the solid electrolyte film  27  may be stored separately. To assemble them, the consumer only needs to assemble them into the structure as shown in  FIG. 3  where the two sides of the solid electrolyte film  27  contacts the anode active layer  13   a  and the cathode active layer  13   b  respectively so that there exists chemical reaction in between. Furthermore, the potential difference measured between the anode current collector  11   a  and the cathode current collector  11   b  caused by the chemical reaction generates electricity and serves as the power source. 
   Since the through hole plating or the sidewall plating and the current collector extensions at the outer surface of the substrate are used in the inventive DIY thin film battery, a consumer may achieve in series or parallel combination of components between or among the components of the battery by soldering or by conductive tapes. In such case, a consumer may obtain a battery with various capacity and voltage as his demand. Some of the batteries may also be connected in parallel or in series without a need of extra external circuit when forming a complete battery. 
   The following embodiments are presented to illustrate other aspects of the present invention. 
   Refer to  FIG. 4 , the second embodiment of the invention combines the anodic component  25  and the solid electrolyte film  27  into one integrated body and the integrated body and the cathodic component  26  are stored separately. Meanwhile, in the third embodiment of the present invention as shown in  FIG. 5 , the solid electrolyte film  27  and the cathodic component  26  are combined into one integrated body and the body and the anodic component  25  are stored separately. 
     FIG. 6  illustrates the fourth embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the drawing, the solid electrolyte film  27  is integrated onto the anodic component  25  and the cathodic component  26  respectively. In other words, one electrolyte film  27  is fabricated onto the surface of the anodic activated layer  13   a  while another electrolyte film  27  is fabricated onto the surface of the cathodic active layer  13   b . By doing so, any of the anodic component  25  and cathodic component  26  integrated elements may be bonded together to form a complete battery. 
   To protect of the battery components during storage, a fifth embodiment of the present invention is set forth wherein a protection film  23  is provided. As shown in  FIG. 7 , the protection layer  23  may be disposed on a surface of the anode current collector extension  21   a  for protection purpose. Alternatively, the protection layer  23  may be disposed on the surface of the solid electrolyte film  27  of the anodic component  25  for the same purpose. Similarly, the protection layer  23  may also be disposed at the surface of the cathodic current collector extension  21   b  and the surface of the solid electrolyte film  27 . 
   The battery components may use a conductive viscose  24  (or a conductive ion viscose) as a choice to achieve bonding between the components instead of applying the currently used packaging technology. As shown in  FIG. 8 , which shows a sixth embodiment of the present invention, an electron-conducting viscose  24  is coated at the surface of the anodic current collector extension  21   a  and laid for bonding with an external electronic device. On the other hand, the formed battery may be connected with another thus formed battery in series or in parallel. In addition, an ion-conducting viscose is coated at the surface of the solid electrolyte film  27  of the anodic component  25 , so that the electrolyte film  27  may be bonded with the anode component  25 . In the same manner, the cathode component  26  may be applied with electron-conducting viscose and ion-conducting viscose  24  at the cathodic current collector extension  21   b  as well as the surface of the solid electrolyte film  27  respectively. 
   Preferably, the conductive viscose coating battery components are to be stored with a protection layer as shown in  FIG. 9 .  FIG. 9  illustrates a seventh embodiment, where a protection layer  23  (may be torn off) is applied at the surface of the electron-conducting/ion-conducting viscose  24  on all regions. In this case, individual components of the battery that is stored separately may be protected. 
   The application of the protection layer  23  and the conductive viscose  24  is substantially achieved by “conductive tapes” and is illustrated in  FIG. 6 . The same is applicable to the components in  FIG. 2-5 . 
   Further, the technology of the present invention may achieve in-series connection by alternative stacking of the anodic and cathodic components so that the battery provides a higher voltage (not shown). In the case of connection in parallel, several components are bonded in a manner that one of the anodic components is connected to the anodic components of the other battery (batteries) using electron-conducting tape sheets. At the same time, the cathodic components of these batteries are bonded with the same manner (not shown). Thus, a higher capacity of battery is achieved. 
   The invention being thus described, it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.