CAMX Power LLC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase II: N161-047

Description

Li-ion battery packs are an increasingly critical component for a variety of Navy missions including underwater unmanned vehicles.  However, safety concerns have impacted adoption of Li-ion batteries in Navy applications. For more than a decade, CAMX Power has been at the forefront of developing technologies and tools for improving the safety profile of Li-ion batteries with respect to internal shorts.  The proposed Phase II effort will deliver a compact, modular system for safety monitoring of Li-ion batteries, based on the CAMX Power Universal Detection Technology (UDT).  This UDT-based system will be qualified to meet applicable Navy requirements and certifications and at the completion of this Program be ready for integration into Navy energy storage systems.  UDT is a technology that provides sensitive, early detection of internal short circuits in Li-ion batteries before such shorts grow in severity to levels that could trigger violent failure of a battery.  Incorporation of UDT monitoring into Navy Li-ion energy storage systems will enhance their reliability and safety by providing early warning of internal short circuits, thus allowing timely intervention and prevention of potentially catastrophic failure.  The performance and efficacy of UDT has been demonstrated in previous efforts sponsored by the Navy including demonstrations in a variety of energy storage system designs for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs).  UDT is a flexible technology that can implemented as a battery-integrated safety monitoring system, or as a separate, stand-alone diagnostic instrument that can be temporarily connected to a battery to perform a scan for the presence of internal shorts.  The UDT system developed under this effort will be suitable for use across a wide range of Li-ion energy storage systems of relevance to the Navy.