31-10-2012, 03:46 PM
Smart Battery White Paper
[attachment=37602]
Smart Battery
A Smart Battery (SB) is a battery with a degree of logic. From this definition, a vast number
of different applications can be issued. We will concentrate on those requiring an MCU,
i.e., more complex than those requiring only a small number of logic components.
ID Recognition
The application will prompt the SB for an identification string and rejects the operation if the
SB doesn’t reply with the correct identifier. This task ensures that only the correct type of
battery is used, and will thus handle problems related to dangerously incompatible models
and counterfeit products.
This task can be made more complex by adding security requirements, making the ID
“code” less possible to crack.
Reporting Charge/Discharge Current
In addition to voltage, the SB will also monitor the charge current (when the battery is being
charged), and the discharge current (when the battery is being drained by the application),
and report these figures to the main application.
Automatically Intervene in Dangerous Situations
This is the logical next step to the previous task: The SB will itself react if a dangerous
situation should occur. This will include blocking the charge/discharge of the battery if
either current is too high, and completely shut down the discharging of the battery if below
a certain level (some battery types are damaged by complete discharging). This will require
the battery vendor to program a lot of the core parameters of the battery into the SB
application. The advantage is that the SB will be more autonomous and that there will be
less need for de-centralized logic in the main application. This means shorter reaction time
and less corruptible critical communication.
Cell Balancing
Many batteries have more than one battery cell. A typical PC battery has three or four. A
requirement for optimal operation is that all cells have the same voltage. It might therefore
be required that the SB to perform the so-called cell balancing operation.
[attachment=37602]
Smart Battery
A Smart Battery (SB) is a battery with a degree of logic. From this definition, a vast number
of different applications can be issued. We will concentrate on those requiring an MCU,
i.e., more complex than those requiring only a small number of logic components.
ID Recognition
The application will prompt the SB for an identification string and rejects the operation if the
SB doesn’t reply with the correct identifier. This task ensures that only the correct type of
battery is used, and will thus handle problems related to dangerously incompatible models
and counterfeit products.
This task can be made more complex by adding security requirements, making the ID
“code” less possible to crack.
Reporting Charge/Discharge Current
In addition to voltage, the SB will also monitor the charge current (when the battery is being
charged), and the discharge current (when the battery is being drained by the application),
and report these figures to the main application.
Automatically Intervene in Dangerous Situations
This is the logical next step to the previous task: The SB will itself react if a dangerous
situation should occur. This will include blocking the charge/discharge of the battery if
either current is too high, and completely shut down the discharging of the battery if below
a certain level (some battery types are damaged by complete discharging). This will require
the battery vendor to program a lot of the core parameters of the battery into the SB
application. The advantage is that the SB will be more autonomous and that there will be
less need for de-centralized logic in the main application. This means shorter reaction time
and less corruptible critical communication.
Cell Balancing
Many batteries have more than one battery cell. A typical PC battery has three or four. A
requirement for optimal operation is that all cells have the same voltage. It might therefore
be required that the SB to perform the so-called cell balancing operation.