Southeast University Team Led by Professor Huang XiaodongAchieves Advances in On-Chip Micro-Energy Research

The continuous scaling of integrated circuits in the post-Moore era has intensified the demand for high-density on-chip energy supply to power miniaturized electronic systems. Micro thin-film all-solid-state lithium-ion batteries (TF-ASSLIBs) are essential power sources for integrated microsystems, with promising applications in the Internet of Things, microrobotics, and related fields. However, achieving stable cathode prelithiation while maintaining compatibility with microelectronic fabrication processes remains a fundamental challenge, constraining the advancement of on-chip energy integration and device miniaturization.

Recently, a collaborative effort between Southeast University and the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, culminated in the publication of a research article in the prestigious international journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition, entitled "Facile Formation of Oxygen-Vacancy Gradient Enables In Situ Uniform Prelithiation in Vanadium Oxide Thin-Film." This study proposes a novel current-collector-driven oxygen-vacancy gradient engineering strategy, thereby achieving high-efficiency and homogeneous prelithiation of vanadium oxide thin films. This advancement furnishes a facileand microelectronics-compatible paradigm for the development of high-performance thin-film lithium-ion batteries.

This work reveals that the selection of the current collector modulates cathode prelithiation behavior through the formation of an oxygen-vacancy gradient, thereby establishing a straightforward and process-compatible strategy for developing high-performance thin-film all-solid-state lithium batteries. These findings have significant implications for the integration and miniaturization of energy modules in intelligent microsystems.

The first author of this paper is Jian Wang, a doctoral candidate at Southeast University. Professor Huang Xiaodong from the School of Integrated Circuits and the MOE Key Laboratory of MEMS at Southeast University, and Researcher Su Dong from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, serve as co-corresponding authors. Southeast University is designated as the first corresponding affiliation. This work was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China.

Article link: //doi.org/10.1002/anie.8496886

Figure 1. Schematic illustration of current-collector-driven oxygen-vacancy gradient engineering for the high-efficiency and homogeneous cathode prelithiation.