Advantage of customized battery integration as self-sustaining and embedded device within print products

摘要

In recent years the field of large-area, organic and printed electronics has demonstrated various applications of functional devices. For most of the applications, a reliable supply with electric energy tailored with respect to functional devices and applications is a mandatory, making thin-film battery a challenging area of research. Among a variety of manufacturing concepts printing technologies and their established workflow provide interesting opportunities to fully integrate the battery in a product by customizing its size and shape regarding the device to be driven by that battery. Hence, these printed electronics applications will contribute a new momentum in the packaging market. Out of the common battery concepts for thin-film batteries, the well understood zinc manganese dioxide battery system is very promising due to its simplicity and its environmental sustainability. Therefore it has been chosen to study appropriate fabrication opportunities based on printing technologies. In this paper, we report on the development of a process workflow and the setup of a pilot manufacturing line, taking into account the requirements to adapt the energy content, the size and the shape to the powered product. The overall manufacturing procedure is divided into single process steps, following the traditional printing workflow which is used in the printing and media industries consisting of Prepress, Press and Post Press.