Last November, Tesla filed for a patent on new battery cell technology that eliminates one or both of the electrical connections between the “jelly roll” inside and the containment cylinder on the outside. On May 7, the patent was published.
Tesla calls this technology as “Cell with a Tabless Electrode.” Using this technology, it would be able to build cells that avoid present-day constraints.
Current batteries use a jelly-roll design in which the cathode, anode, and separators are rolled together and have a cathode tab and an anode tab to connect to the positive and negative terminals of the can.
The path of the current necessarily travels through these tabs to connectors on the outside of the battery cell. However, ohmic resistance is increased with distance when current must travel all the way along the cathode or anode to the tab and out of the cell.
Furthermore, because the tabs are additional components, they increase costs and present manufacturing challenges.
Describing the process, Tesla described the functioning of the new cell in the patent submission, “The cell includes a first substrate having a first coating disposed thereon, wherein a second portion of the first substrate at a proximal end along the width of the first substrate comprises a conductive material.”
They added, “ An inner separator is disposed over the first substrate. A second substrate is disposed over the inner separator. The second substrate has a second coating disposed thereon. The first substrate, the inner separator, and the second substrate in a successive manner, the first substrate, the inner separator, and the second substrate are rolled about a central axis.”
On May 7, Elon Musk took to Twitter to say the new technology is far more important than it may appear at first.
Reference- Clean Technica, Yahoo Finance, SCRIBD website