Â鶹¹ÙÍø

Battery formation and testing

Infineon's semiconductor solutions overcome every challenge and make battery formation and testing equipment even more accurate and efficient

nobutton

Overview

The battery formation and testing process, which is part of overall battery production, relies on special equipment to charge and discharge a battery. The process demands a high degree of voltage and current accuracy to ensure that the battery lasts for the indicated lifetime. Infineon offers a wide portfolio of semiconductor solutions to be used in this process, helping you to deliver high voltage, high current accuracy, and enable energy recycling.

Benefits

  • Higher power density
  • Greater efficiency
  • Extremely accurate current
  • Higher current rating size
  • Improved system reliability
  • Lower system cost

Block diagram

About

About the battery formation process

Global demand for batteries is rising due to an increase in battery-powered applications, in particular electric vehicles (EVs). But before a battery can be fitted in an EV, it must be formatted and tested. Battery formation is currently the main bottleneck in the battery manufacturing process. The charge cycles that activate the material in a newly assembled battery cell can take up to 20 hours. Battery cells are then tested for their capacities and quality through controlled charging and discharging cycles. Only after testing batteries can be assembled into modules and packs, and finally can be deemed market-ready. But the process is essential as it greatly impacts a battery¡¯s life, quality, and cost. Every newly produced battery is subject to the formation process before it is introduced into a system. Battery formation equipment utilizing the right AC-DC and DC-DC stages, is required to carry out these key steps.

Infineon's semiconductor solutions, reference designs, evaluation boards, and development and simulation tools enable you to save precious time.

Trends in battery cell formation and testing equipment

Battery cells size and capacity have increased, and most battery equipment manufacturers expect the supplier to suggest a suitable power system solution.

Ideally, it:
? Enables higher control over voltage and current, and accuracy of up to 0.01 percent.
? Provides thermal management for higher current rating requirements.
? Increases the overall power density with a higher current rating size.
? Improves the reliability of a system solution that operates up to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
In general, manufacturers seek a quality formation or testing system solution that is not over-engineered. It should have an attractive cost-performance ratio, yet be reliable and stable to facilitate continuous operation under the given conditions. With space at a premium, high power density is an excellent, often preferred way to decrease the solution¡¯s size. Opting for a standard platform that can be scaled to fit a wide range of requirements enables a manufacturer to enjoy fast time to market.
?

Infineon empowers successful designs

Due to the rapid development of the battery industry, we are currently assissting to new ways to reduce energy consumption, pursue energy saving and improve product consistency. At Infineon, we have a solid understanding of the battery formation market and are able to provide full-spectrum system solutions, from the AC grid to the battery, that require a highly efficient PFC stage and isolated DC-DC stage. Totem pole PFC converter and bi-directional DC-DC converters offer great design flexibility, allowing to meet varying customer requirements. Particularly noteworthy: for non-isolated DC-DC buck-boost stages, Infineon¡¯s comprehensive portfolio of surface mounted devices (SMD) is ideal for those prioritizing a lower BOM and higher power density. For the highest efficiency, Infineon's latest WBG technologies portfolios (SiC and GaN) enable improved thermal performance, reduced power losses, lower system costs and highest power density solutions in both ACDC and DCDC application stage.

Explore our system solutions to get started on your battery formation power system designs.

Battery cyclers are pivotal for research and testing of batteries

"Battery testing systems, or battery cyclers, are rack systems by which batteries are tested for their capacities and quality through controlled charging and discharging cycles. As there is no ¡°one-size-fits-all¡± solution when it comes to battery design, battery cyclers play a pivotal role in helping to characterize different batteries, analyzing their function, and providing key data to further improve them or test their quality. Doing so provides a vital instrument for research into rechargeable batteries. With battery cyclers, the scope of battery testing goes beyond the battery production factory, being employed also by ATV and ESS companies, universities, battery/material labs, and second life batteries operators. From single-channel units to multi-channel systems, due to the large size and high capacity of battery modules and packs, battery cyclers have high power ratings compared to battery cell formation systems ¨C up to hundreds kW per channel or more, and are designed to handle higher voltage output ranges.

Infineon's wide range of discrete and module solutions enable you to achieve high accuracy, highly efficient designs with higher power density to reduce cabinet size."
?

Towards a global Battery Circular Economy

Battery cyclers enable the global Battery Circular Economy, as different measurement technologies address all stages of battery testing. As a company dedicated to decarbonization, Infineon proudly support this technology.

Retired EV batteries retain almost 80% of their original capacity. Though no longer useful for traction, these battery packs can perfectly serve other energy storage applications. For example, when EV battery packs are dismantled, the battery cells obtained are tested for determining their fitness for second-life applications. Cells with similar characteristics are classified to have a homogenous cell-selection for each second-life battery pack, while those that are not suitable for repurposing are sent to specialized recycling facilities and recycled. In this way, EVs, and Energy Storage utilization is maximised throughout the whole battery life cycle, while resource usage is optimized through recycled materials.
?

About the battery formation process

Global demand for batteries is rising due to an increase in battery-powered applications, in particular electric vehicles (EVs). But before a battery can be fitted in an EV, it must be formatted and tested. Battery formation is currently the main bottleneck in the battery manufacturing process. The charge cycles that activate the material in a newly assembled battery cell can take up to 20 hours. Battery cells are then tested for their capacities and quality through controlled charging and discharging cycles. Only after testing batteries can be assembled into modules and packs, and finally can be deemed market-ready. But the process is essential as it greatly impacts a battery¡¯s life, quality, and cost. Every newly produced battery is subject to the formation process before it is introduced into a system. Battery formation equipment utilizing the right AC-DC and DC-DC stages, is required to carry out these key steps.

Infineon's semiconductor solutions, reference designs, evaluation boards, and development and simulation tools enable you to save precious time.

Trends in battery cell formation and testing equipment

Battery cells size and capacity have increased, and most battery equipment manufacturers expect the supplier to suggest a suitable power system solution.

Ideally, it:
? Enables higher control over voltage and current, and accuracy of up to 0.01 percent.
? Provides thermal management for higher current rating requirements.
? Increases the overall power density with a higher current rating size.
? Improves the reliability of a system solution that operates up to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
In general, manufacturers seek a quality formation or testing system solution that is not over-engineered. It should have an attractive cost-performance ratio, yet be reliable and stable to facilitate continuous operation under the given conditions. With space at a premium, high power density is an excellent, often preferred way to decrease the solution¡¯s size. Opting for a standard platform that can be scaled to fit a wide range of requirements enables a manufacturer to enjoy fast time to market.
?

Infineon empowers successful designs

Due to the rapid development of the battery industry, we are currently assissting to new ways to reduce energy consumption, pursue energy saving and improve product consistency. At Infineon, we have a solid understanding of the battery formation market and are able to provide full-spectrum system solutions, from the AC grid to the battery, that require a highly efficient PFC stage and isolated DC-DC stage. Totem pole PFC converter and bi-directional DC-DC converters offer great design flexibility, allowing to meet varying customer requirements. Particularly noteworthy: for non-isolated DC-DC buck-boost stages, Infineon¡¯s comprehensive portfolio of surface mounted devices (SMD) is ideal for those prioritizing a lower BOM and higher power density. For the highest efficiency, Infineon's latest WBG technologies portfolios (SiC and GaN) enable improved thermal performance, reduced power losses, lower system costs and highest power density solutions in both ACDC and DCDC application stage.

Explore our system solutions to get started on your battery formation power system designs.

Battery cyclers are pivotal for research and testing of batteries

"Battery testing systems, or battery cyclers, are rack systems by which batteries are tested for their capacities and quality through controlled charging and discharging cycles. As there is no ¡°one-size-fits-all¡± solution when it comes to battery design, battery cyclers play a pivotal role in helping to characterize different batteries, analyzing their function, and providing key data to further improve them or test their quality. Doing so provides a vital instrument for research into rechargeable batteries. With battery cyclers, the scope of battery testing goes beyond the battery production factory, being employed also by ATV and ESS companies, universities, battery/material labs, and second life batteries operators. From single-channel units to multi-channel systems, due to the large size and high capacity of battery modules and packs, battery cyclers have high power ratings compared to battery cell formation systems ¨C up to hundreds kW per channel or more, and are designed to handle higher voltage output ranges.

Infineon's wide range of discrete and module solutions enable you to achieve high accuracy, highly efficient designs with higher power density to reduce cabinet size."
?

Towards a global Battery Circular Economy

Battery cyclers enable the global Battery Circular Economy, as different measurement technologies address all stages of battery testing. As a company dedicated to decarbonization, Infineon proudly support this technology.

Retired EV batteries retain almost 80% of their original capacity. Though no longer useful for traction, these battery packs can perfectly serve other energy storage applications. For example, when EV battery packs are dismantled, the battery cells obtained are tested for determining their fitness for second-life applications. Cells with similar characteristics are classified to have a homogenous cell-selection for each second-life battery pack, while those that are not suitable for repurposing are sent to specialized recycling facilities and recycled. In this way, EVs, and Energy Storage utilization is maximised throughout the whole battery life cycle, while resource usage is optimized through recycled materials.
?

Documents

Documents

Design resources

Partner solutions

Developer community

{ "ctalist":[ { "link" : "https://community.infineon.com/t5/forums/postpage/choose-node/true", "label" : "Ask the community", "labelEn" : "Ask the community" }, { "link" : "none", "label" : "View all discussions", "labelEn" : "View all discussions" } ] }