Page 61 - PEN Ebook May 2021

Power Management POWER MANAGEMENT

Li-ion Batteries:

The Future of Motive
Figure 7: Sum Up

footprint (an inductor may sometimes be bigger tion. Battery life estimation, done right from the
than the regulator IC itself). first development steps, will prevent any unnec- Power
essary design modification in the future.
Here is a sum up of the power management By Robin Schneider, Director of Marketing, Green Cubes
strategies introduced in this article. The results
come from my professional experience, as well The Li-ion battery industry is rapidly expanding weight, higher power, improved safety and en-
as battery life estimations conducted on our sim- as governments around the world accelerate the vironmental benefits of Li-ion chemistry and its
ulation tool Wisebatt. energy infrastructure needed to support climate variants. The big auto makers are aggressively

change initiatives. The major news outlets are moving their fleets to electric power and there
With a great understanding of the use case, engi- reporting on the technology in their headlines is a trickle-down effect in other motive applica-
neers can find the most adapted technique, with almost on a daily basis; from the New York Times tions, from aviation ground support equipment to
regards to three crucial criteria: performance, “The Auto Industry Bets Its Future on Batteries” electric scooters. With the wide-spread adoption
price, form factor. A good practice is to test each and “17 Reasons to Let the Economic Optimism of Li-ion technology, there is an improved vari-
solution and observe its impact, through simula- Begin”, which predicts improvements in Li-ion bat- ety in the chemistries and formfactors available
tery technology similar to the predictive improve- and this, in turn, enables the implementation of

ments in semi-conductors known as Moore’s Law. battery technology in a wider range of devices. In
For More Information
this article, I will discuss the battery technology
Li-ion batteries are finding new applications in available for electric power and address typical
markets as they are replacing the older lead-acid concerns and tips for newly implementing these
▶ Wisebatt.com
technology and there is a drive to convert prod- innovations in motive applications. First, let’s
ucts that previously used internal combustion review some of the high-level changes to what is
▶ Benefits and drawbacks of the most common power management techniques, Talk
engines (ICE) to electric power. Motive applica- available in the market and where the technology
at Power Forum 2020 tions, from fork-lifts to landscape equipment, and price points are headed.
can benefit from increased run-time, decreased

60 MAY 2021 | www.powerelectronicsnews.com MAY 2021 | www.powerelectronicsnews.com 61