Chemistry: electrical current producing apparatus – product – and – Cell support for removable cell
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-09
2001-09-04
Brouillette, Gabrielle (Department: 1745)
Chemistry: electrical current producing apparatus, product, and
Cell support for removable cell
C429S100000, C429S121000, C429S163000, C365S228000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06284406
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to IC (integrated circuit) information cards, and more particularly, to an IC card having a power source as part thereof.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The term “intelligent” or “smart” cards generally refers to information cards that contain integrated circuits (IC) for storing, retrieving, processing and transmitting information. These smart cards or IC cards find advantageous application in the fields of finance, commerce, transportation, communication, health and safety, and identification and security.
It is known to incorporate batteries into such cards to provide a power source for the electronic circuitry within. Having a battery incorporated into the IC card allows for the storage of greater amounts of data, and further allows for improved processing capabilities. As will be appreciated, the available space within an IC card is limited and requires an extremely thin power source. While it is known to incorporate batteries with IC cards, it has been difficult to actually reduce to practice an IC card having the thickness of an typical credit card, and at the same time, provide the energy requirements necessary for storing and retrieving large amounts of data. With the addition of more and more features of electronic devices to IC cards, the allottable space for a power source within the card becomes smaller and smaller. It is believed that with today's technology and with the desire to provide more and more features therein, the allowable area, or footprint, for a battery within an IC card (of conventional credit card dimensions) will tend to become less than about 25 mm by 35 mm. In addition, the thickness of the battery must be less than 1 mm to fit within conventional credit cards, which themselves are typically about 0.8 mm thick. With such constraints, it becomes more and more difficult to utilize batteries in conventional cylindrical or button cans and still provide the necessary energy and power. In addition, as more and more electronic capabilities are added to IC cards, the energy requirements will increase. Higher and higher electrical drain rates will thus tend to require larger and more powerful batteries, rather than smaller ones.
Because of the difficulty of providing the energy required within the space constraints of the credit card size, it is desirable to use the most energetic battery chemistries practicable. This is particularly important for secondary (rechargeable) batteries, because commercially-used secondary chemistries have, in general, lower energy content than commercially-used primary (non-rechargeable) chemistries. For example, lithium-ion chemistries have some of the highest energy densities among commercially available secondary systems, but still have considerably lower energy content than the most energetic primary battery chemistries, such as those based on lithium metal. Secondary electrode materials having higher energy content than the currently used materials are known, but have not been used in practice because of concerns about their safety, particularly their thermal stability.
The present invention overcomes these and other problems, and provides an IC card having as part thereof an ultra-thin, secondary battery having a flexible battery package.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided an IC card, comprised of an electronic device, and a battery within the card for electrically energizing the electronic device. The battery is comprised of a monolithic electrochemical cell having a lithium-containing anode, a carbon-containing cathode and a porous polymer separator infused with an electrolyte solution. The cell has a thickness of less than 0.7 mm. A package contains the cell. The package is formed of a sheet of flexible laminate material having at least one metal foil layer and a layer of an adhesive-like polymeric material. The battery has an overall thickness of less than 0.8 mm.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an IC card having a power source as part thereof.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an IC card as described above wherein the power source may be a primary or secondary battery.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an IC card as described above wherein the IC card is not significantly thicker than a conventional credit card.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide an IC card as described above wherein the power source is part of a laminate card structure.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide an IC card as described above that utilizes lithium-ion polymer battery technology.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide an IC card as described above that utilizes lithium-ion polymer battery technology in which the cathode material is primarily lithiated nickel oxide.
These and other objects and advantages will become apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment of the invention taken together with the accompanying drawings.
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Corniuk Joan
Daroux Mark L.
Fang Wanjun
Moutsios George W.
Shokoohi Frough K.
Alejandro R.
Brouillette Gabrielle
Kusner Mark
NTK Powerdex, Inc.
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