A minimal volume hermetic packaging design for high energy density micro energy systems

We demonstrate a hermetic packaging strategy for micro energy storage systems that minimizes the packaging volume and increases the active energy storage materials by 2X and 5X compared to the best lab scale microbatteries and commercial pouch cells. The minimal packaging design uses the current collectors as a multifunctional hermetic shell and laser-machined hot melt tape to provide a thin, robust hermetic sealing between current collectors with stronger adhesion to metals than most commercial adhesives. We developed the packaging using commercially available equipment and materials, and created a strategy that can be applied to many kinds of micro energy systems with custom shape configurations. This minimal, versatile packaging has the potential to improve the energy density of current micro energy storage systems for applications ranging from biomedical devices to micro-robots.