A sequential thin film deposition equipment for in situ fabricating all solid state thin film lithium batteries
To improve the interfacial quality and electrochemical performance of all solid state thin film lithium batteries (TFLBs) a sequential thin film deposition equipment has been developed. This equipment consists of a dry glove box for packing TFLB and four vacuum chambers, one chamber of them for deposition lithium film anode by flash thermal evaporation, and the other three vacuum chambers for deposition of current collectors, cathode and solid electrolyte by magnetron sputtering, respectively. This equipment has been used to sequentially deposited Au current collector, TiO2 cathode, LiPON (lithium phosphorus oxynitride) solid electrolyte and metallic Li anode thin films, and to prepare a TFLB with a structural configuration of Li/LiPON/TiO2/Au via an in situ process without breaking vacuum. The results showed that the TFLB exhibited lower interface resistance and better electrochemical performance than that fabricated via an ex situ process.