Patent ID: 8865345

Claim:
A three-dimensional lithium-ion battery comprising: a battery enclosure; an anode protruding from a surface of an anode substrate within said enclosure, said anode comprising a mass of anodically active material having a top, a bottom and sides extending continuously between the top and the bottom, the bottom being proximate the anode substrate surface, the top being distal to the anode substrate surface, the sides comprising a first and a second side, said anode having a first state and an expanded state that varies as a function of the state of charge of the three-dimensional battery, wherein the volume occupied by said anode is larger in said expanded state than in said first state; a first cathode and a second cathode protruding from a surface of a cathode substrate within the enclosure, the cathode substrate surface opposing the anode substrate surface or being the same surface as the anode substrate surface, the anode and the first and second cathodes being interdigitated such that the anode is between the first and second cathodes with the first cathode being separated from the first side of the anode along a first direction lying within a plane that is parallel to the anode substrate surface and the second cathode being separated from the second side of the anode along a second direction lying within a plane that is parallel to the anode substrate surface; a porous separator contacting said first and second cathodes, and surrounding the top and sides of said anode; and a gap between said anode and said porous separator, said gap being larger in said first state than in said expanded state as measured in the first and second directions, wherein the volume defined by said gap is at least twenty percent smaller in said expanded state than in said first state.