Chemistry: electrical current producing apparatus – product – and – Current producing cell – elements – subcombinations and... – Cell enclosure structure – e.g. – housing – casing – container,...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-12-11
2004-02-10
Ryan, Patrick (Department: 1745)
Chemistry: electrical current producing apparatus, product, and
Current producing cell, elements, subcombinations and...
Cell enclosure structure, e.g., housing, casing, container,...
C429S163000, C429S167000, C429S185000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06689511
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a secondary battery and an electronic instrument using it, and more specifically to a secondary battery composed of battery element and an external packaging film sealing the battery element by adhering thereto and also to an electronic instrument using it.
2. Description of the Related Art
By the propagation of lithium ion batteries or the like, small-sizing and light-weighting of a battery as the electric source of portable type electronic instruments such as a portable telephone, etc., have rapidly progressed. However, the requirement of more small-sizing and thinning of electronic instruments is strong, and more small-sizing and thinning of batteries have been demanded. In such a circumstance, small-sizing and thinning of various electronic parts have been attempted, at present, the size of a battery becomes an essential factor of determining the size or the thinness of electronic instruments, and many efforts have been made for thinning and light-weighting of batteries.
For thinning electronic instruments, it is preferred to mount a battery having as small a thickness as possible. For determining the position of the battery in the instrument needs to be considered according to an inside configuration of the instrument. That is, in a thin battery, a sufficient capacity is not obtained, whereby the using time is restrained, and when a thick battery is used for obtaining a sufficient capacity, thinning of electronic instrument becomes difficult.
Thus, in the stage of circuit designing, an effort of insuring a wide space having a uniform thickness by gathering parts having a high height at one portion has been made but in such a case, it is unavoidable that the degree of freedom of circuit designing is spoiled.
In such circumstances, thinning of a secondary battery of portable type electronic instruments has progressed, and recently, can-type secondary batteries having a thickness of 4 mm or thinner have been commercialized and card-type or film-form batteries utilizing laminate pack have been developed, but the above-described problems have not yet been fundamentally solved.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and an object of the invention is to provide a secondary battery having a sufficient capacity and capable of attaining small-sizing and thinning of electronic instruments without spoiling the degree of freedom of circuit designing and to provide an electronic instrument using the secondary battery.
According to the present invention, there is provided a secondary battery comprising a battery main body composed of at least one battery element and an external packaging film, the battery element including an electrolyte as well as a positive electrode layer and a negative electrode layer holding the electrolyte therebetween, the external packaging film closely contacting and sealing the battery element, wherein the external packaging film sealing the battery element has, at a surface thereof, a difference in level according to a contour of the battery element.
That is, in the case of forming the battery main body of the secondary battery by laminating battery elements each, as the fundamental unit, composed of a positive electrode, an electrolyte, and a negative electrode, by partially changing the laminated layer number of the battery elements, the difference in level fitting to the form of the receiving space of the secondary battery or the form of electronic part group received adjacent to the secondary battery can be formed at the surface of the battery main body, whereby the secondary battery capable of being deformed without being adhered to the restriction of the uniform thickness of a secondary battery of prior art can be provided.
That is, in the secondary battery of the invention, since in the designing stage of an electronic instrument constituted together with an electronic part group, an external packaging case, etc., each of high and low portions can be desirably established at the battery main body. For example, in the case of placing a secondary battery adjacent to an electronic part group received in an external packaging case, a secondary battery having high and low portions absorbing the unevenness of the height of the electronic part group can be prepared or a secondary battery having high and low portions fitting to the space having nonuniform shapes in the above-described external packaging case can be prepared.
Also, according to other view point of the present invention, there is provided a secondary battery wherein constituting members such as circuit portions, etc., constituting an electronic instrument are disposed on the surface of the battery element and they are sealed with an external packaging film, whereby the difference in level is formed between a high portion composed of the surface of the constituting members such as the above-described circuit portions, etc., disposed on the surface of the battery element and a low portion composed of the exposed surface of the battery element, and such a secondary battery is also included in the invention.
As the circuit portions in the invention, protective circuit portions of an electronic instrument are illustrated. In this case, the battery main body may be a battery main body of prior art having a uniform thickness only or the battery main body may be the battery main body having the portions having large and small laminated numbers of the battery elements of the invention.
By the construction as described above, the secondary battery having a sufficient capacity can be mounted on an electronic instrument while utilizing in maximum the restricted receiving space.
Since when an adhesive packaging technique which has hitherto been used for sealing a battery element with an external packaging film by adhesion is applied to the present invention, the difference in level according to the above-described high and low portions is formed as it is on the surface of the external packaging film of the battery element, the technique can be applied without obstructing the establishment of the correct difference in level.
Accordingly, the secondary battery having a sufficient capacity and capable of attaining small-sizing and thinning of an electronic instrument can be proposed without spoiling the degree of freedom of circuit designing.
The difference in level is formed by a plurality of planes perpendicular to a direction in which the electrolyte and the positive and negative electrode layers of the battery element are laminated.
“The high portion” in the secondary battery of the invention means “the surface of a thick portion” of the battery element where a relatively large number of layers are laminated, and “the low portion” means “the surface of a thin portion” of the battery element where a relatively small number of layers are laminated.
As the embodiments of the lamination of the battery elements for forming the difference in level at the external packaging surface of the secondary battery of the invention, there are illustrated embodiments such as (1) a small battery element is placed on a large battery element, (2) one battery element is wound, (3) one battery element is folded a little, etc.
As the above-described embodiment (1), there is illustrated an embodiment that the difference in level is formed between a high portion defined by a surface of a second battery element which is laminated on a surface of a first battery element and is smaller than the first battery element and a low portion defined by an exposed surface of the first battery element.
As the above-described embodiment (2), there is illustrated an embodiment that the battery element is wound round, and the difference in level is formed between a high portion defined by a surface of an outside end portion of the battery element and a low portion defined by an exposed surface of the battery element below the outside end portion.
As the above-described embodiment (3), there is illus
Mitate Takehito
Nishijima Motoaki
Yamada Kazuo
Nixon & Vanderhye P.C.
Ryan Patrick
Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
Yuan Dah-Wei D.
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