Lithium-ion cells for aerospace applications

PolyStor Corporation has developed and recently commercialized ICR-18650 Li-ion secondary cells which deliver 1250 mAh capacity at 1C rate and 500 cycles (20% capacity fade) at 100% depth of discharge. The cells provide a specific energy of 110 Wh/kg and an energy density of 280 Wh/l. PolyStor is working to improve further its ICR-18650 cells. Some of the performance characteristics of the improved cells are presented in this paper. The feasibility of using PolyStor's Li-ion battery technology for small satellite low-Earth orbit (LEO) applications is also addressed.