(96a) Power Sources for Wireless and Mobile Applications: The Mismatch Between Battery Technology and Device Needs
AIChE Annual Meeting
2015
2015 AIChE Annual Meeting Proceedings
Engineering Sciences and Fundamentals
Tutorial Session on Electrochemical Methods, Systems and Applications
Monday, November 9, 2015 - 8:30am to 9:00am
Power Sources for Wireless and Mobile Applications: The Mismatch Between Battery Technology and Device Needs
Paul A. Kohl
Georgia Institute of Technology
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Atlanta, GA 30332-0100
There is rapid growth in the number and kind of wireless and mobile electronic devices. The power supply for these devices is often a limiting factor in terms of the device size, cost, mission life, and capabilities. It is commonly known that there is a need for smaller and denser power sources. However, there is also a growing mismatch between power sources (e.g. batteries) and wireless devices needs. For example, the scaling of integrated circuits (shrinkage in size and benefits thereof) lowers the load voltage whereas batteries are motivated to increase the voltage as a means of increasing the energy density. Energy conversion from high voltage to low voltage becomes more difficult as the difference between the two values increases. Further, future electronic devices will likely operate at very low voltage (e.g.<0.5 V) which causes significant problems for voltage conversion devices which strive to provide regulated, stable supply voltage. Secondary power supply components are needed in order to meet peak-power requirements, such as during data transmission. In addition, battery size and cost reductions can occur through the integration of the battery into the electronic device. However, more reactive battery components become harder to integrate because they are not separately packaged. Thus, battery advances of use for other application (e.g. transportation or grid storage) may have attributes that conflict with their use in integrated, portable electronics.
In this presentation, the structure of the load and power supply for portable electronic systems will be reviewed and the mismatch with battery performance and metrics discussed. The educational programs needed to understand and advance this field will also be discussed.