Ultrafast pulse discharge and recharge capabilities of thin-metal film battery technology

BOLDER Technologies Corporation has developed an ultrathin-plate, valve-regulated, lead-acid battery technology that is, in essence, a high specific energy electrochemical supercapacitor. Because of its unique construction comprised of extremely thin plates (0.010", 0.25 mm or less in thickness) with very high active surface areas, the BOLDER/sup (R)/ cell has the capability to deliver extremely high discharge currents, in either a continuous or pulsed duty cycle. Heavy-duty, high-contact area current collectors also contribute to the ability to deliver high discharge currents (estimated at up to 1000 A for the 2 V/1.2 Ah single cell). The same characteristics permit full recharges following complete discharges in as little as 2-4 minutes. The cell also has extremely fast response characteristics and, due to its construction, will experience minimal voltage-time waveform distortion due to inductive effects. It has been demonstrated that the technology is scalable to smaller and larger cell sizes and it can be configured in prismatic as well as spiral-wound envelopes. These performance attributes and design flexibility make TMF/sup TM/ technology very well suited for high-current pulsed-power applications, superior to other battery systems and comparable to supercapacitors, all with high specific energy and at a relatively low cost.