Dual-Voltage Lithium-Ion 6T Batteries for Low-voltage and High-voltage Applications

The development of a modular, scalable battery system designed to support the Army’s 6T program will substantially reduce life cycle costs to the Army and DoD at large. Spear’s VoltFlex permits 6T lithium ion batteries to operate in either 24V or 48V modes. Spear’s novel switching mechanism identified in Phase I, will be further refined in Phase II and used in conjunction with the 24V and 48V batteries developed under this effort to demonstrate a 300V battery system comprised of 6 x 46V 6T batteries. Spear’s VoltFlex, when combined with Spear’s Scalable Battery Management System (SBMS), enables 24V or 48V mode 6T batteries to be combined into hybrid mobility packs of up to 600VDC. Spear will deliver six 6T batteries and associated SBMS hardware/software to demonstrate 300V operation. Spear will provide electrical drawings, technical specifications, software, modeling and simulation, and test results showing operation, performance, and capacity in 24V, 48V (2 parallel 48V and 2 series 24V 6Ts), and 300V (6 series 48V 6Ts) configurations. Spear will perform a cost analysis demonstrating the dual voltage capability will have no more than a 20% impact relative to a 24V only 6T lithium ion battery.