Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries (LIB) are providing power for an increasing range of portable medical devices. With their light weight and higher voltages, device capabilities have improved within acceptable weight limits for portability. However, the batteries'issues with reliability, safety, service life and operating temperature range, have limited their acceptance. Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) in particular are used in a wide variety of use cycles in the field and in hospitals, airports, households and workplaces. The units with the LIBs can see long storage periods in different states of charge and at wide temperature extremes. Giner, Inc. has developed new battery electrolytes with exceptional chemical stability, non- flammability and wide temperature range, which will be evaluated with a new 5-V cathode material to safely increase specific power and specific energy of lithium-ion batteries for use in lighter and more compact units. The new battery chemistry has the potential to increase cell operating voltages from 3.6 V to 4.5 V. Giner, Inc. will team with a commercial producer of AEDs, Zoll Medical Corp., to develop and demonstrate the next generation of lithium ion batteries to facilitate increased reliability and expanded capabilities o these emergency care devices in a wider range of environments and use cycles. Testing will be conducted to show the increased operating life-time and charge retention compared with commercial cells. Experimental cells will be built with the new materials and cycled with a wide range of charge and discharge rates and at temperatures over the range of 0oC to 50oC. The new cells will also be tested in voltage ranges corresponding to overcharge and overdischarge to demonstrate improvements in user safety and abuse tolerance. Testing will be conducted at Giner's battery engineering development laboratory which permits simultaneous battery cycle testing of up to 24 cells. All results will be compared with performance of commercial lithium-ion cells which represent the state-of-the-art. Based on these results and input from Zoll, a battery pack design will be developed as a prototype for new AEDs which are currently under development. The design and the performance parameters determined in Phase I will be used in Phase II to fabricate full battery prototypes that will be tested and integrated with new portabe AED designs. The prototypes will have the necessary I/O communication and microprocessors to ensure safe and reliable integration with new devices.
The proposed material improvements will enhance the performance, safety, reliability and operating life of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries used in portable medical devices, such as automated external defibrillators (AEDs). Higher cell voltage will permit the design of smaller battery packs with fewer cells in series to achieve the necessary device voltage and power. The improved batteries will have better capacity retention on storage to increase total service life and reliability for emergency medical AED services operating in the field.
