Extending battery life using smart technology: Odd Jostein Svendsli explains how the microelectronics in a battery pack can make a real difference

摘要

As we surround ourselves with more and more portable applications, re-chargeable batteries become ever more important in our everyday life. They are present in our laptop PCs, our cell phones and PDAs, all applications we have learned to expect a lot from. Laptop PCs are getting smaller, cheaper and more powerful, but the battery standby time is not increasing in the same rate. New cell phones with around-the-clock Bluetooth presence and active color displays have less stand-by time than less recent models. Battery chemistry technologies have reached a plateau and are not keeping up with the ever-increasing demands of portable applications, and this is putting a lot of pressure on battery pack manufacturers. While waiting for a breakthrough in fuel-cell technology, vendors need to look elsewhere to squeeze those extra milli-Watt hours out of their battery packs. Due to the complexity of the most popular rechargeable battery chemistries, a lot can be gained from improving the electronic battery management in the design.