Soild Power, Inc. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: The Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit (TALOS) program is tasked with integrating severa

Description

The Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit (TALOS) program is tasked with integrating several systems that require electric power. While systems such as internal combustion engines could conceivably meet the 4-5kW projected power requirement in a manageable package, this would result in undesirable heat and noise signatures and make indoor operation impractical. The ideal solution would be a battery pack with extremely high energy density that is able to provide power for several hours while also meeting U.S. military standards for wide operational temperature range, shock and vibration, etc. Unfortunately, state-of-the-art lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries fall far short from being able to provide the requisite energy in a small volume and mass. Other technologies such as lithium-air (Li-air) and lithium-sulfur (Li-S) show promise, but remain at the basic research level and may be a decade or more from reaching their potential. This leaves a need for a new high-energy battery technology that can provide the runtime to make TALOS missions practical. To address this need, Solid Power, LLC. (Solid Power) proposes to utilize a solid-state battery design to far exceed the energy densities achieved by state-of-the-art (SOTA) Li-ion batteries in a format that also provides for intrinsic safety and abuse tolerance.