Author Janet Ooi | Keysight’s IoT industry and solution marketing.
Today’s Internet of Things devices: more electronics, more sensors, more efficiency
The rapid development of technology has changed many aspects of society, including how people communicate, navigate, treat diseases, and even defend their homes and countries. The Internet of Things (IoT) now has more electronic devices than ever to run better diagnostics, more sensors to increase autonomy, and better connectivity to avoid interference. Internet of Things devices are becoming smaller and smaller due to portability, resulting in battery-powered devices. These changes in the technological landscape are leading us to the power revolution. A revolution that brings longer battery life, ultra-fast battery charging, and more sustainable and environmentally friendly battery materials. Industry and research centers are leading the boundaries of battery development, manufacturing, and testing.
The next power challenge
Compared with more than two decades ago, the battery industry has come a long way. Today, battery manufacturers are constantly trying to find cheaper, lighter, and more powerful solutions to support various battery-powered devices. Consumers demand longer battery life and faster charging speeds in all walks of life, including consumer electronics, healthcare, automobiles, and the military. The healthcare industry relies heavily on better batteries to support medical devices, such as portable and convenient blood pressure monitors, hearing aids, heart support devices, and insulin pumps. Military applications may require long periods of power between charging or replacing batteries in remote areas.
In addition to battery manufacturers, IoT device manufacturers also consider battery characteristics when designing new devices-from design and prototyping to product development, product testing and manufacturing. This is one of the most important considerations for IoT devices, giving them a unique and marketable competitive advantage.
Equipment design and prototyping
Throughout the device design and prototyping process, the device designer keeps in mind the effect of the design and how it will affect the battery.
- Determine power strategy
The first step in extending battery life is to determine the power strategy of the device. Before designing, it is important to determine the function and purpose of the new wireless device, identify the hardware components and specifications, determine the type of radio connection and thermal management, and consider software scalability, power-on timing and sequencing. Each of the above items will affect the device design.
- Choose battery
The next step is to select the correct battery for the device. Device designers need to understand the physical size and weight of the device, the battery chemistry that fits the device, and how the battery is connected to the device. The device designer will include the power requirements in the design and determine whether it meets the device’s nominal voltage, algorithm, and wireless transmission protocol.
- Characterization
Finally, characterize the selected battery according to the determined power strategy and device design. Whether it is battery capacity, internal resistance or open circuit voltage, equipment designers hope to verify it based on the design.
Equipment development
Research and development engineers play an equally important role in their efforts to extend the battery life of IoT devices.
- simulation
One of the tasks of the engineer is to simulate the battery and test it according to the device design, software and firmware. The test covers various test scenarios that combine hardware and software design without waiting for the actual battery to be charged and discharged.
- Confirm
The next evaluation confirms that the capacity and energy rating of the battery are consistent with the data sheet to verify that the operating time is consistent with the design of the device.
- cycle
Research and development engineers will determine the impact of battery aging on device performance and reliability under certain pre-defined test conditions.
- test
R&D engineers will also conduct power-off tests under various environmental conditions to truly evaluate battery performance under real-world conditions.
- Prove
Battery certification and compliance ensure user safety in compliance with Underwriters Laboratories (UL) certification and the guidelines of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) organization.
Battery testing faces challenges
Although the steps for designing and developing wireless devices sound simple, design engineers face many challenges. For example, design engineers must understand how a new device drains its battery capacity.
With the miniaturization of the Internet of Things, low-power IoT devices operate with very low µA current in the background to allow the device to operate during idle time. The sleep current is also very low compared to the current used when the device is active or transmitting. Design engineers must isolate and test specific hardware sub-circuits, because certain sub-circuits must always be running in the background to make the device work properly.
Design engineers will also test and characterize their equipment, its subcircuits, and
Battery, stand-alone and combined. Design engineers need to verify and test the equipment to ensure that it meets the proof-of-concept requirements before mass production.
End-to-end device battery testing solution
How can device designers accurately measure all transient activities to effectively measure the overall current consumption of IoT devices? How do design engineers test the impact of their design and algorithm changes, and verify them against complex customer usage models?
Design engineers need a solution to help them perform battery characterization, simulation, cycling, current consumption, and event-based power consumption analysis to optimize and maximize the battery life of the device.
The Keysight X8712A / N6705C DC power analyzer, its source measurement unit and electronic load module, and three compatible software tools are an integrated solution that can help you solve battery life, battery consumption and battery simulation issues. This integrated solution helps design engineers select, optimize and verify battery performance by reducing battery test time and complexity. Then, design engineers can easily and accurately test and characterize their devices and batteries to make smart trade-offs to optimize battery runtime.
in conclusion
Battery technology and testing tools are rapidly evolving to keep up with expectations and requirements. Design engineers should capture and analyze battery performance data early in the design and throughout the development process to avoid the expensive and time-consuming rework required to fix problems later in the development cycle. In addition, the insights from accurate battery life testing provide you with the greatest opportunity to explore new ways to extend and optimize the battery life of IoT devices.
