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Rechargeable Lithium Ion Battery Technology

Andrew Yang
ECE4007-L01 Fall 2008
BufferCam

I. I NTRODUCTION
Moores Law seems to apply to everything high tech except for batteries. Portable technology has
seen big gains in performance and miniaturization, except battery life improvements lag eons behind.
Whether it is environmental concerns to form factor concerns rechargeable battery technology is
ubiquitous in todays portable electronics. Common types of rechargeable batters are lead-acid, NickelCadmium, Nickel-Metal Hydride, and lithium ion batteries [1]. Lithium ion batteries have the best energy
density of those four making them popular for portable electronic devices. However, they are expensive
because they require more care and maintainence. Each battery has an on board computer to manage the
charge and discharge current and voltage, temperature, and the voltage state of each battery [2]. They
have made the news numerous times because of their tendency to explode and cause fires easier than their
counterparts.
Lithium ion batteries work through the movement of Lithium ions through an electrolyte. When the
battery charges the lithium ions move from the positive to the negative electrode on the inside of the
battery; discharging is the opposite.
Two interesting aspects of Lithium Ion batteries are charging and capacity. Discharging is mostly
concerned with making sure the battery does not over discharge or discharge too fast.
II. C HARGING
Charging a Lithium Ion battery is a complex and iterative process. Depending on the remaining capacity
on the battery the charging current needs to be varied. For example, the charging current for a 3.7V battery
when the battery voltage is less than 2.9V has to be .1*C mA, where C is the magnitude of the capacity
of the battery measured in mAh, until it gets above 2.9V where it can charge normally, otherwise it can be
charged at the normal charging current of .7*C mA safely [3]. The charger determines when the battery
is full by detecting the charge current. When it drops below .1*C during the normal charging cycle, it is

full. In addition to this the charging circuit also detects overcharging by shutting off the charging if the
battery is above 4.3V.
For large batteries it is often desireable to charge at higher than 0.7*C mA. It is safe to do this as long
as the temperature is maintained at a level within a threshold. It has been shown that batteries can be
charged above 3*C with the proper cooling [4] and at temperatures not too low. Dangers of overcharging
the battery are amplified when a battery is charged above its normal charging current. Fast charging
has also been achieved in Lithium ion batteries [4]. Fast charging is defined by the Advanced Lead Acid
Battery Consortium (ALABC) as charging in less than 4 hours reaching 50% in less than 5 minutes and
80% in less than 15 minutes.
Charging technology has also advanced beyond just using a wall wart to charge batteries. Many
of todays portable electronics can be charged using USB. Maxim has developed a device that can
automatically switch between AC power and USB power while managing all the aspects of charging
a lithium ion battery and taking into account the limitations of both power sources [5].
III. C APACITY
The development of Lithium ion batteries was driven because of its high energy density. It has the
ability to store more energy per unit weight than most other types of batteries because lithium is a highly
reactive alkali metal [2]. The basic function is the movement of lithium ions in an electrolyte from the
negative to the positive side. The capacity of the battery is determined by the surface area of the electrodes:
more surface area, more space for the lithium ions to collect on one side, more capacity to store charge.
Recent developments have strived to increase the surface area of these electrodes.
Stanford researchers have recently grown silicon nanowires on the electrodes of a lithium ion battery
[6]. They managed to create a battery that had ten times the energy density of conventional batteries
while maintaining a robust battery that could be recharged and discharged many times while maintaining
its capacity. However, techniques involving nanowires typically are not efficient. About 20-25% of the
energy put into the battery is not recoverable [7]. This is not an issue with smaller battery such as those
in a cell phone, but issues arise when larger batteries are used such as in electric cars.
IV. R EFERENCES
[1] Brian, Marshall. (2000, April 1). How Batteries Work. How Stuff Works [Online]. Available:
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/battery4.htm
[2] Brian, Marshall. (2006, November 14). How Lithium-ion Batteries Work. How Stuff Works [Online].
Available: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/lithium-ion-battery1.htm

[3] (2007, January). Overcharge/Overdischarge/Overcurrent Safety Circuits [Online]. Available: http://

www.panasonic.com/industrial/battery/oem/images/pdf/Panasonic LiIon Charging.pdf
[4] Kim, B. G.; Tredeau, F. P.; Salameh, Z. M., Fast chargeability lithium polymer batteries, Power
and Energy Society General Meeting - Conversion and Delivery of Electrical Energy in the 21st Century,
2008 IEEE , vol., no., pp.1-5, 20-24 July 2008
[5] (2004, June 25). Charging Batteries Using USB Power [Online]. Available: http://www.maximic.com/appnotes.cfm/an pk/3241
[6] Chan, C. K.; Peng, H.; Liu, G.; et al. (2007, December). High-performance lithium battery anodes using silicon nanowires. Nature Nanotechnology [Online]. 3, 31 - 35 (2008). Available: http://www.nature.com/
nnano/journal/v3/n1/full/nnano.2007.411.html
[7] K. Bullis. (2006, June 22). Higher-Capacity Lithium-Ion Batteries. Technology Review [Online].
Available: http://www.technologyreview.com/read article.aspx?ch=nanotech&sc=&id=17017&pg=1