Triggering Li-ion Battery Cells with Laser Radiation

About this technology

Overview

Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center have developed a high-powered infrared (IR) laser that can trigger Li-ion battery cells into thermal runaway (TR) without perforating the battery’s can wall like previous methods. Inducing TR in a battery cell allows engineers to test and improve the safety performance of overheated batteries that can potentially catch fire or explode. The primary advantage of this method is the heat energy delivered by the laser can be localized to the exact target spot on the battery cell minimizing thermal biasing to adjacent cells. This laser method does not require any internal modification of the test subject cell design nor require patch heating to trigger a short-circuit. Triggering Li-ion Cells with Laser Radiation could work on any commercial battery cell design with only exterior surface treatment required, which can be done by the user.