Autonomous and Programmable 12-W 10-kHz Single-Cell Li-Ion Battery Tester

Portable electronics like laptops are ubiquitous nowadays and they depend on batteries for power. Unlike traditional power supplies, batteries have limited capacity, cycle life, power capability, and other restrictions. To improve battery performance or select the best battery for an application, engineers need to accurately extract the battery’s parameters through experiments. Existing battery testers often fall short in current flexibility, accuracy, and battery voltage range and thus cannot accommodate all the necessary experiments and different battery types with a single setup. In this article, a 12-W battery tester using linear charger/discharger and bipolar power supply is proposed. The tester can provide programmable current profile up to 3.3 A and 10 kHz with a wide battery voltage range to accommodate for different battery types. The tester can also regulate battery voltage and perform constant voltage charge/discharge. A prototype is implemented, and the testing capabilities are demonstrated with common battery experiments using a commercial 18650 cylindrical battery. The experimental results show the tester’s excellent current accuracy and flexibility.