Thanks to the evolution of battery technology over the last 20 years, portability has been the dominant trend across the spectrum of electronics applications. Batteries obviously have revolutionized mobile communications and computing. Industrial and medical applications, too, have been transformed through portability. And, electric transportation, though still in its infancy, promises both immense market demand and serves as an incentive for technology development. Meanwhile, as a variety of renewable sources compete for deployment, the power sector is expected to use massive amounts of electrical energy storage to manage grid loads.
As batteries become more pervasive, the need to manage them for optimum performance, safety and long life, becomes critical. For engineers, mastery of the science — and art — of battery management is now a crucial skill.
But it’s not a trivial skill. A battery management system must manage a rechargeable battery during charging and discharging by protecting it from operating outside its safe operating area, monitoring its state, calculating secondary data, reporting that data, controlling its environment, authenticating and balancing it.
For engineers, a good place to start is with the leader in battery management semiconductor solutions. Texas Instruments’ latest Battery Management Guide describes solutions – developed for specific chemistries for Lithium Ion (Li-ion) and Li Polymer batteries — for charging, gauging, protection, authentication and monitoring. In addition, a wide selection of evaluation modules, development kits, software, reference designs, help speed time to market.