NOVELTY - Fabricating lithium ion electrode subassembly for use in lithium ion cell involves receiving nanostructures (302) comprising an electrochemically active material; and either depositing amorphous silicon and/or germanium over the nanostructures to electrically interconnect at least a portion of the nanostructures; or depositing an interconnecting material onto the active layer to electrically interconnect at least portion of the nanostructures; or passing an electrical current through the layer to bond nanostructures and to electrically interconnect at least portion of the nanostructures.    USE - For fabricating lithium ion electrode subassembly for use in lithium ion cell (claimed), which is used in many applications such as aerospace, medical devices, portable electronics, and automotive applications; and for battery applications. The cells are high gravimetric and/or volumetric capacity cells.    ADVANTAGE - The method allows improved applications of high capacity active materials in battery electrodes that minimize various drawbacks of the prior art. The high capacity electrode active materials can be deployed as nanostructures and used without sacrificing battery performance due to pulverization, loss of electrical and mechanical contacts among nanostructures, and other reasons. Even major swelling during lithiation, such as observed with silicon, does not deteriorate the structural integrity of nanostructures because of their small size.    DETAILED DESCRIPTION - Fabricating lithium ion electrode subassembly for use in lithium ion cell involves receiving nanostructures (302) comprising an electrochemically active material; and either depositing amorphous silicon and/or germanium over the nanostructures to electrically interconnect at least a portion of the nanostructures; or depositing an interconnecting material onto the active layer to electrically interconnect at least a portion of the nanostructures; or passing an electrical current through the layer to bond nanostructures and to electrically interconnect at least a portion of the nanostructures. The electrochemically active material is selected from silicon, germanium, and tin. The nanostructures comprise nanowires with average aspect ratio of at least 4. The step of depositing the amorphous silicon and/or germanium involves flowing process gas containing silane into a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) chamber. The concentration of silane in the process gas is 1-20%. The nanostructures are attached to a substrate, where the substrate comprises at least one material selected from copper foil, stainless steel foil, nickel foil, and titanium foil. The nanostructures are attached to substrate by a binder, where the binder is at least partially removed during depositing amorphous silicon and/or germanium. The method further involves compressing nanostructures to electrically interconnect at least a portion of the nanostructures. The compressing is performed prior to depositing the amorphous silicon and/or germanium. The interconnecting material comprises metal containing material. The interconnecting material comprises at least one of copper, nickel, iron, chromium, aluminum, gold, silver, tin, indium, gallium, and lead. INDEPENDENT CLAIMS are included for the following:    (1) lithium ion electrode subassembly for use in a lithium ion cell comprising nanostructures containing an electrochemically active material; and amorphous silicon and/or germanium deposited over the nanostructures and electrically interconnecting at least portion of the nanostructures; and    (2) lithium ion cell comprising nanostructures containing an electrochemically active material; and amorphous silicon and/or germanium deposited over the nanostructures and electrically interconnecting at least a portion of the nanostructures.    DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING(S) - The figure shows schematic view illustrating two nanostructures and an interconnecting material particle after depositing the interconnecting material.    Nanostructures (302)    Interconnecting material particle (304)