This application is a National Stage of International Application No. PCT/KR2009/006989, filed Nov. 25, 2009, and claims priority from Korean Patent Application No. 2008-135713 filed on Dec. 29, 2008 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
Systems and methods consistent with the present invention relate to a thread-type battery and a connector for connecting the same, and more particularly, to a thread-type battery which comprises a first pole terminal and a second pole terminal which are distinguished from each other in their forms, and a connector for connecting the same.
Thanks to the development of electronic technologies, diverse electronic devices have been developed and widely used. The electronic devices essentially use electric energy. Therefore, batteries of various forms suitable for various sizes and forms of the electronic devices have been increasingly needed.
Accordingly, an effort to develop a battery having flexibility has been made. In other words, an effort to develop a battery of a flexible form, which can be bent or curved, other than an existing battery of a fixed form such as a cylinder type battery, a cube type battery, and a coin type battery, has been made.
As part of this effort, a thread-type battery has been developed. However, the thread-type battery is too thin and long to distinguish between a positive pole terminal and a negative pole terminal, and also, it is difficult to connect the batteries in series or in parallel.
An exemplary embodiment of the present invention provides a thread-type battery which comprises opposite pole terminals which are distinguished from each other, and a connector for connecting the same.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a thread-type battery comprising a flexible body unit, a first pole terminal which is formed at one end of the body unit and protrudes so as to be insertable into a first external terminal, and a second pole terminal which is formed at the other end of the body unit and has a shape in which a second external terminal is to be inserted, and which has an polarity opposite a polarity of the first pole terminal.
The first pole terminal may have at least one convexo-concave portion formed thereon.
The second pole terminal may have a shape in which a second terminal corresponding to the first pole terminal in shape is to be inserted.
The body unit may comprise an internal current collector, an internal electrode which encloses the internal current collector and is connected to one of the first pole terminal and the second pole terminal, an electrolyte portion which encloses the internal electrode, an external electrode which encloses the electrolyte portion and is connected the other one of the first pole terminal and the second pole terminal, an external current collector which encloses the external electrode, and a sheath portion which encloses the external current collector.
The body unit may comprise first and second current collectors which are isolated from each other and are disposed in parallel with each other, a first electrode which encloses the first current collector and is connected to one of the first pole terminal and the second pole terminal, a second electrode which encloses the second current collector and is connected to the other one of the first pole terminal and the second pole terminal, an electrolyte portion which encloses both the first electrode and the second electrode and isolates the first electrode and the second electrode from each other, and a sheath portion which encloses the electrolyte portion.
The first pole terminal and the second pole terminal may have different colors.
One end of the body unit at which the first pole terminal is formed and the other end of the body unit at which the second pole terminal is formed may have different colors.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a connector which connects the batteries described above in series or in parallel.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a connector comprising a first connecting portion to which a first thread-type flexible battery is connectable, and a second connecting portion to which a second thread-type flexible battery is connectable, wherein each of the first connecting portion and the second connecting portion is a protrusive type so as to be insertable into a terminal of a battery or a slip-in type so as to allow a terminal of a battery to be inserted.
One of the first and the second connecting portions that is the protrusive type may comprise at least one convexo-concave portion formed on a protruding portion.
One of the first and the second connecting portions that is the slip-in type may comprise a fixing portion to fix an inserted terminal.
At least one of the first and the second connecting portions may comprise a plurality of connecting portions.
Additional aspects and advantages of the exemplary embodiments will be set forth in the detailed description, will be obvious from the detailed description, or may be learned by practicing the exemplary embodiments.
The above and/or other aspects of the invention will become and more readily appreciated from the following description of the exemplary embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:
Reference will now be made in detail to the present exemplary embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elements throughout. The exemplary embodiments are described below in order to explain the present invention by referring to the figures.
The body unit 110 has a thread form and has flexibility. The thread form recited herein refers to a form that has various cross-sections such as a cylinder or a rectangular parallelepiped and also is thin and long such that a thing having the form can be bent or curved. Accordingly, the body unit 110 may be bent if it is subjected to a force. The thread-type battery may be called a wire-type battery, a line-type battery or other names.
The battery of the present exemplary embodiment may have various diameters and lengths. In this case, the battery may have a suitable diameter to be woven into a fabric structure. For example, the battery may have a diameter about from 0.1 mm to 3 mm. The length of the battery may be greater than the diameter. For example, the battery may be 10 cm long. The upper limit and the lowest limit of the diameter and the length may be changed variously according to a purpose and a field of the battery.
The body unit 110 comprises a positive electrode and a negative electrode therein and the two electrodes are distinguished from each other by an electrolyte. An inner structure of the body unit 110 will be explained in detail below.
The body unit 110 has the first pole terminal 120 formed at one end and the second pole terminal 130 formed at the other side. The first pole terminal 120 and the second pole terminal 130 have different polarities. In other words, if the first pole terminal 120 is a positive pole, the second pole terminal 130 is a negative pole.
In
Accordingly, the first pole terminal 120 may be inserted into an external terminal having the same form as that of the second pole terminal 130 and an external terminal having the same form as that of the first pole terminal 120 may be inserted into the second pole terminal 130. As a result, users can easily recognize that a protrusive portion is a positive pole and an opposite portion is a negative pole and can connect the first pole terminal 120 or the second pole terminal 130 to another battery or another electronic device.
A second pole terminal 230 is formed in a shape such that an external terminal having the same shape as that of the first pole terminal 220 is inserted into the second pole terminal 230. As such, the first pole terminal 220 and the second pole terminal 230 may correspond to each other in their shapes.
As shown in
The batteries may be connected to one another directly or via a connector.
In
Accordingly, first pole terminals of two batteries are connected to each other in parallel via the two connecting portions 410, 430, and a second pole terminal of another battery is connected in series via the protrusive connecting portion 440.
Each connecting portion illustrated in
To achieve this, each connector 700, 800 of
As described above, the number and the shapes of the connecting portions provided on the connectors may be realized diversely. An interior of the connector is filled with conductive material so that the first connecting portion and the second connecting portion are electrically connected to each other.
In the above-described embodiments, the connector has an angled exterior. However, this should not be considered as limiting. The connector may have a cylindrical shape.
In
Accordingly, the battery according to exemplary embodiments may have various shapes such as a one-dimensional thread shape, a two-dimensional fabric shape, or a three-dimensional clothing, shoe, tent, hat, or belt shape.
The internal current collector 1 may be made of TiNi type alloys having high elasticity, pure metals such as copper or aluminum, pure meal coated with carbon, conductive material such as carbon and carbon fiber, or conducting polymer such as polypyrrole.
A surface of the internal current collector 1 is covered by the internal electrode 2. The internal electrode 2 is formed on the internal current collector 1 in various ways such as slurry coating and spraying using powder or active material, hot dip plating, vacuum evaporation, sputtering, ion plating, molecular beam epitaxy, chemical vapor deposition using heat, light and plasma, a dry method using a clad layer, a wet method using an electrochemical reaction, and other pasting techniques.
The internal electrode 2 is made of various materials according to its electrode characteristic. The internal electrode 2 has a polarity opposite that of the external electrode 4. Accordingly, if the internal electrode 2 is a negative electrode, the external electrode 4 is a positive electrode. If the internal electrode 2 is a positive electrode, the external electrode 4 is a negative electrode.
If the internal electrode 2 is the negative electrode, the internal electrode 2 may be made of negative electrode material, for example, metals such as lithium, natrium, zinc, magnesium, cadmium, metallic alloy for hydrogen storage, and lead, nonmetals such as carbon, or polymer electrode material such as organic sulfur. In this case, since the external electrode 4 is used as the positive electrode, the external electrode 4 is made of positive electrode material, for example, sulfur and metal sulfide, lithium transition metal oxide such as LiCoO2, SOCI2, MnO2, Ag2O, Cl2, NiCl2, NiOOH, or a polymer electrode. If the internal electrode 2 is used as the positive electrode and the external electrode 4 is used as the negative electrode, the reverse applies.
A surface of the internal electrode 2 is covered by the electrolyte portion 3. The electrolyte portion 4 physically isolates the internal electrode 2 and the external electrode 4 from each other and enables ion exchange between the internal electrode 2 and the external electrode 4. The electrolyte portion 3 may be made of a polymer electrolyte of a gel type using PEO, PVdF, PMMA, or PVAC, a solid type, or a porous type, or a sulfide, LiPON, or oxide-based solid electrolyte.
As described above, the external electrode 4 is formed outside the electrolyte portion 3 and the external current collector 5 is formed outside the external electrode 4. The external current collector 5 may be made of various materials as those of the internal current collector 1.
The sheath portion 6 is formed outside the external current collector 5. The sheath portion 6 may use general polymer resin. For example, PVC, HDPE, or epoxy resin may be used. Besides these, any material that can prevent damage to the thread-type battery and can be freely bent or curved may be used for the sheath portion 6.
The first and the second electrodes 20, 50 are enclosed by an electrolyte portion 30. The electrolyte portion 30 supports ion exchange between the first and the second electrodes 20, 50 and physically isolates the first and the second electrodes 20, 50 from each other. The electrolyte portion 30 is enclosed by a sheath portion 60.
The current collectors 10, 40, the electrodes 20, 50, the electrolyte portion 30, and the sheath portion 60 of
Although only the two electrodes are provided in
Also, in the above embodiments, the first pole terminal and the second pole terminal are recognized as a positive pole or a negative pole according to their respective shapes, i.e., whether they are a protrusive type or a slip-in type. However, the first pole terminal and the second pole terminal may be distinguished by colors.
In other words, the first pole terminal protruding to the outside is colored red and the second pole terminal is colored blue so that the positive pole and the negative pole can be more easily distinguished from each other.
In this case, materials of the first pole terminal and the second pole terminal may be selected among a plurality of metals in consideration of colors. For example, if the first pole terminal is the positive pole, the first pole terminal may be made of Al. On the other hand, the second pole terminal may be made of Cu. Otherwise, the first pole terminal may be made of Cu, and the second pole terminal may be made of Al.
Accordingly, the first pole terminal and the second pole terminal may be distinguished from each other by their respective colors, even if extra coloring is not processed. The materials of the pole terminals are not limited and may be set diversely.
Also, the body unit of the first pole terminal may be enclosed by a red sheath, whereas the body unit of the second pole terminal may be enclosed by a blue sheath. Accordingly, the user can distinguish between the positive pole and the negative pole of the thread-type battery and thus user's convenience can be improved.
Also, although the body unit of the thread-type battery has a cylindrical shape in the above embodiments, the cross-section of the body unit may be an oval, a quadrilateral or other polygon.
The fixing portions 421, 422 are made of material having constant elasticity and are formed in pair to face each other.
Since the thread-type battery described in the above embodiments has a small size and flexibility, it may be difficult to insert a protrusive pole terminal into a slip-in pole terminal. However, if the fixing portions 421, 422 are provided in the hole 410 having a predetermined size as shown in
The fixing portions 421, 422 shown in
Also, in the above-described thread-type battery, the protrusive terminal is a positive pole and the slip-in terminal is a negative pole. However, this should not be considered as limiting. The protrusive terminal may be a negative pole. In other words, both a first type battery in which a protrusive terminal is a positive pole and a second type battery in which a protrusive terminal is a negative pole may be used. In this case, a connector may comprise only a slip-in connecting portion rather than comprising a protrusive connecting portion and a slip-in connecting portion as shown in
Referring to
The connecting portions into which the positive pole terminal is inserted are connected to a positive pole protrusive terminal 920 via an internal wire, and the connecting portions into which the negative pole terminal is inserted are connected to a negative pole protrusive terminal 930 via an internal wire.
The connector 900 shown in
The battery described above is not limited to a secondary battery. In other words, the battery may be a primary battery or a solar battery. In particular, in the case of a solar battery, the sheath portion may be made of transparent material in order to realize the solar battery as a thread-type battery.
The foregoing exemplary embodiments and advantages are merely exemplary and are not to be construed as limiting the present inventive concept. The exemplary embodiments can be readily applied to other types of apparatuses. Also, the description of the exemplary embodiments is intended to be illustrative, and not to limit the scope of the claims, and many alternatives, modifications, and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10-2008-0135713 | Dec 2008 | KR | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/KR2009/006989 | 11/25/2009 | WO | 00 | 6/29/2011 |