Implementing Charging Algorithms in Firmware
Microcontrollers have moved into almost every aspect of power management, from managing point-of-load regulators in blade-server cabinets to monitoring battery charge levels. Many designers tasked with creating the firmware for these systems are not familiar with software development, and are often at a loss as to where to start and how to structure the firmware design. This presentation will demonstrate a simple loop-based design for implementing even the most complicated charging algorithms with simple software state machines. Attendees will leave with a template for developing complex charging algorithms, and experience with tools and processes required for creating reliable firmware systems.
Keith Curtis, Technical Staff Engineer
Microchip Technology Inc.
Keith Curtis is the Technical Staff engineer for Microchip Technology, Inc. In this role, Keith develops training and reference designs for incorporating microcontrollers in intelligent power supply designs. He also sits on the PMBus development committee, and is chair of the PMBus development tools subcommittee.

Automotive Track
High Rate Ni-MH Battery for Hybrid Electric Vehicle
The Ni-MH battery is being widely used on various high rate applications such as power tools, electric bicycles and hybrid electric vehicles (HEV). Ni-MH battery can be used for electric vehicle applications but due to the high cost of nickel and less energy density than the lithium ion batteries, Ni-MH battery becomes a less possibility candidate for the EV use. However, if a good battery recycling program can be adapted for the EV battery, the cost of Ni-MH battery can be dropped significantly. With the simplicity of the battery packing, less complicate power management system, and high safety factor, the Ni-MH battery may still be a candidate for the EV application. This presentation concentrates on the cell design and manufacturing of the high rate Ni-MH cell for various electric vehicle batteries. The multi-cell battery design and testing results of Ni-MH electric vehicle battery will be presented.
David H. Shen, Ph.D., CEO
NEXcell Battery Co., Ltd.
Dr. David Shen is currently the CEO of NEXcell Battery Co., Ltd. His battery research fields include rechargeable Li-TiS2 battery, rechargeable Li-ion battery, rechargeable Li-ion polymer battery and primary Li-SOCl2 battery. Dr. Shen has published over 50 articles and presentations in various battery conferences and journals. He also holds three patents in rechargeable battery.

Performance Improvements of Electric Vehicle Battery Packs with Active Equalization
In the electric vehicle industry, the vehicle battery is the primary factor limiting growth of the market.  Present battery technologies do not have as much capacity or lifetime as desired.  Improvements are slowly being made but these are only occurring incrementally and for the near term, there is no significant improvement in sight.  In order to get the most out of the present battery technologies, proper battery management is paramount.  Discover battery management needs of electric vehicles, focusing on equalization to get greater performance from the battery pack including increased capacity and lifetime.
Brian Kuhn, Founder and Senior Engineer
SmartSpark Energy Systems
Brian Kuhn is a founder and senior engineer at SmartSpark. Brian handles most testing and design problems on the battery equalizer and remote power technologies. For six years, Brian worked at Purdue University as a research engineer, investigating power electronics based systems.

New Non-Metallic High Electron Flow Plastic Materials for Capacitors and Anodes
Materials with high electron flow with minimal resistance while minimizing their weight and size is a goal. Coupling with green initiatives and rising metal prices makes an all plastic anode and/or capacitor desirable. Limitations have been the carbon technologies and inherent limitations of the plastic extrusion process. Recent developments have enabled the manufacture of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and other plastic films with resistance levels at 10 and 1 Ohms. The resulting films are able to be produced with variable porosity and variable resistance levels, at various thicknesses, allowing for lightweight, low resistance films to be used in various power applications.
Keith Donaldson, President
Engineered Materials, Inc.
Keith Donaldson helped form Engineered Materials, Incorporated (EMI) and then in 2002 formed Reactive Barrier Systems (RBS) as a joint venture with Purestat Technologies. Both companies have as a main focus developing products utilizing the Intercept Technology and other proprietary ESD and plastic based electronic and electrical technologies. Keith is president of EMI and RBS and is a member of ESD Association, Tau Beta Pi, AICHe, and Society of Plastic Engineers.

Battery Charging Track
Intelligent Battery Charging Technology
An intelligent battery charging technology has been enhanced to include battery diagnostics and prognostics. Derived from the analysis of a matrix of battery parameters that includes intrinsic electrochemical parameters, diagnostics and prognostics can determine the battery’s power, its state of charge (SoC) at the current cycling point and a prediction of its ability to deliver a certain number of cycles. Accurately determining a battery’s ability to sustain required energy and power allows battery replacement prior to failure, eliminating unnecessary, unsafe, inconvenient and costly down time while attaining maximum battery life. Practical applications of this technology are highlighted in both the passive and active vehicle battery monitoring systems currently in development.
John James, President and CEO
GEM Power, LLC
John James is president, CEO and managing member of GEM Power, LLC. His corporate responsibilities included sales, marketing and product development, with operational responsibilities for production, warehousing and distribution, and interfaced with aircraft manufacturers such as Cessna, Beech and Learjet. Prior to his term as president, he was the vice president of Engineering for Teledyne Battery Products.

Battery Charger Efficiency Standards and Strategies for Improvement
Pressure for efficient use of increasingly limited electric power resources together with ever increasing use of portable, battery operated electronic devices, has prompted interest by both users and government agencies in battery charger efficiency. Charger designers have long been interested in power conversion efficiency because minimizing waste heat is a prime design goal in all but the smallest of chargers. With the increasing popularity of lithium chemistry batteries comes the added restriction of maintaining the cells at less then 45°C during charge for safety and increased cycle life. Excess energy waste during battery charge is not only a bad idea for the environment and poor design practice; it's becoming an international regulatory agency issue as well. This talk explores the existing and in-development battery efficiency standards and relates these to various battery charger design topologies. It presents methods for analyzing conversion efficiency and strategies for improvement.
David Gunderson, Sr. Electronics Engineer
Micro Power Electronics, Inc.
David Gunderson has more than 30 years of electronic product development experience. He designs charger and battery-protection circuits and develops embedded software for Micro Power Electronics Inc. in Redmond, Wash.

Power Management Track
Battery Pack Electronic Design for Lithium Based Products
A wealth of new products for the professional and consumer markets are being developed with high power lithium based battery packs for performance as well as environmental issues. Product developers are working to achieve the lowest cost solutions while customers are demanding higher performance as well as enhanced safety. Can the products under development meet all these requirements and are the right features being included in the battery pack electronics? Take an in depth look into the different battery pack electronics designs that are being developed for several classes of products. We will identify what features should be incorporated in various types of packs based on usage profiles as well as total power provided. A comparison of features and benefits of the various battery pack electronics designs as well as the cost of deployment for these designs will also be discussed.
Michael Coletta, Principal Engineer
Intersil
Mike Coletta has worked for Intersil for the past ten years in technical marketing and new product development roles. He is currently a principal engineer located in Irvine, Calif. where he is leading the development of Intersil's next generation battery management and power management products for high voltage battery systems. Mike has several patents in the areas of power management and battery safety circuits.

2:45 Networking Break

3:00 Product Demonstrations

3:15 - 4:25 General Sessions (three tracks running simultaneously)
Battery Testing Track
Valuable Lessons Learned from Controlled Battery Testing
Controlled laboratory testing can tell us about the suitability of a battery and its related subsystems for an intended environment. Questions we seek answer to include: can it be transported safely; does it meet the manufacturer's electrical and environmental specifications and does it meet the regulatory requirements? The answers to these questions are not always straightforward and can often be interrelated. Answering these questions is important to manage exposure to warranty costs, safety issues, production delays, redesign and rework costs and the quality image of the manufacturer. This presentation will give an overview of military and commercial compliance standards. This will be followed by a summary of qualification and reliability test methodologies used to validate the design, construction and manufacturing of batteries and subsystems. The presenters will provide examples of test induced failures drawn from the experience of the authors and discuss how design and production considerations can reduce or eliminate these failures.
Gary Rohlke, Product Test Sales Manager
Sypris Test & Measurement
Gary Rohlke is the National Sales Manager for Product Testing Services at Sypris Test & Measurement, a division of Sypris Solutions. In this capacity he is responsible for all product test business development activities. Gary has over 25 years of experience as a test engineer and project manager designing and implementing test systems, test fixtures and test software.

Understanding Battery Pack Performance Issues
Most portable devices, electric hybrid vehicles and energy storage applications require proper configurations of battery packs. Besides typical cell operating and performance issues, there are additional issues related to pack operation. To meet the complex power demands in these applications, the pack also requires handling stressful duty cycles. It is therefore much more challenging to deal with pack performance under these complex operating conditions. In this presentation, we will discuss how to establish cell baseline behavior via testing and characterization, which is used to model cell performance. We will then discuss how cells in a batch can be characterized to assist us understand their variations and develop criteria to select cells for pack assembly. We will also discuss how these variations comprise to intrinsic imbalance of the pack and how to quantify other factors in the pack control and management.
Dr. Bor Yann Liaw, Electrochemical Power Systems Laboratory
Matthieu Dubarry, Electrochemical Power Systems Laboratory
Hawaii Natural Energy Institute
Dr. Bor Yann Liaw directs the Electrochemical Power Systems Laboratory at the University of Hawaii to conduct research on advanced batteries and (bio)-fuel cells. He has been involved in electric and hybrid vehicle R&D for the past 12 years, primarily focused on battery testing, model prediction and simulation, and vehicle/battery operation data collection and analysis. He is also a partner in Battery Tech Hawaii LLC, High Power Research Laboratory and Ambient Micro LLC, conducting battery and energy harvesting technology development and commercialization.

Battery Manufacturing Track
Advances in Characterization Techniques for Understanding Degradation and Failure Modes in Lithium-Ion Cells
A novel cross-sectioning technique has been developed that enables direct imaging and characterization of degradation mechanisms inside lithium-ion cells. Unlike conventional techniques that require harvesting of materials from a cell, this cross-sectioning technique preserves the electrode structure and the spatial relationship between the various components in the electrodes. Internal defects and degradation mechanisms, long suspected to be linked to safety, reliability and performance problems, have been directly observed and characterized using this new cross-sectioning technique. Learn as several examples of these defects and degradation mechanisms are shown. In addition, the applicability of the cross-sectioning technique to failure analysis, design and performance evaluation demonstrated.
Quinn C. Horn, Managing Engineer
Kevin C. White, Senior Engineer
Exponent, Inc.
Dr. Quinn Horn is a managing engineer in Exponent's mechanical engineering and materials/metallurgy practice. Quinn consults in the area electrochemical engineering including corrosion analysis, battery manufacturing and battery science. In the field of battery technology, his work addresses a broad range of issues including material selection and testing, cell design, cell manufacturing, performance degradation, accelerated life testing and due diligence technology evaluation.

Lithium Ion Cell Evaluation – Going Beyond the Manufacturer’s Data Sheets
A cell manufacturer’s data sheets typically give the performance of cells under conditions that encompass the majority of usage conditions that are a reflection of their customer base. For most lithium ion cell manufacturers the largest segment is of course the consumer electronics segment made up largely of the mobile phone and notebook PC OEMs. However, lithium ion is now commonly used in many non-consumer applications that include portable medical devices, power tools, military devices, asset tracking, various wireless applications and professional electronics of all types. These applications can have a variety of unique requirements that require testing to verify performance under these conditions. These could include operation outside of the normal temperature ranges, high discharge pulse rates, extreme cycle life, fast charging, shallow cycling and intrinsic safe operation. This presentation will show the performance for a variety of lithium ion cells highlighting those that can deliver under unusual conditions.
Chris Turner, Director of Battery Technology
Nexergy, Inc.
Chris Turner contributes more than 15 years of multi-disciplined battery industry experience to the strategic development of portable power solutions at Nexergy. For six years, he led battery research and strategic planning in energy technology for Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications USA (SEMC). Chris holds a Degree in Chemistry from the University of South Carolina.

4:30
International Regulatory Issues
International Regulatory requirements impact the design, cost and time-to market of cells and batteries.  This presentation will focus on the worldwide regulatory certification of cells and batteries used in the portable consumer market.   Discover the legal and market driven requirements in North America, Europe, Asia and other regions.  The applicable agencies and test standards will also be highlighted.  Time permitting, we will delve into some of the more popular test standards and discuss the actual construction considerations and test methods.
Jody Leber, Program Manager   
Motorola Product Testing Services
Jody Leber is a program manger at Motorola Product Testing Services (MPTS). He has been in the regulatory compliance field for 18 years, and four years specific to batteries and cells. Jody is involved with different standards development bodies and is also a Quality Auditor.

5:00 Cocktail Reception

Friday, September 5th

8:15 Keynote
Turning Up the Heat on Battery Safety: A Guide to Battery Safety Testing
Battery safety is now of paramount importance with good design and consistency in production being vital.  Batteries are used more and more in “power hungry” consumer devices such as phones, PDA’s media players, toys and power tools.  This has placed increasing pressure on manufacturers to reduce the size and weight of battery packs whilst increasing their performance.  Whilst these advances in battery technology have satisfied the demands of the consumer; battery safety has started to become an issue especially in relation to Li-ion chemistry.  Whilst Li-ion provides high power density it does have potential drawbacks such as increased  sensitivity to temperature and mechanical shock – a potential issue during air transportation!  We will explain and de-mystify the potentially complex field of battery safety testing and advise on what testing aspects need to be considered and why.  
Matthew Larkin, Senior Battery Consultant
TÜV SÜD 
Matthew Larkin has been working in regulatory and voluntary compliance for over 10 years, originally specializing in product safety testing and Electro-Magnetic Compatibility and is currently responsibility for our Battery Certification Business.  His key expertise is in Lithium and Lithium-ion battery technologies specifically regarding battery safety and consistency in production.  He is an active member of the Cellular Telecommunication & Internet Association battery certification working group and has been instrumental in the successful operation of the North American battery certification program.

9:15 Featured Presentation
Technology to Prevent Counterfeiting in the Battery Industry
The worldwide battery industry is struggling to fend off the growing threat of counterfeits, an epidemic that contributes to an estimated $500 billion in global trade. As the use of electronic devices soars, the demand for batteries grows rapidly, and so are the problems caused by counterfeiters who are inserting fakes into legitimate sales outlets everywhere. Battery makers need a powerful, robust solution to aggressively deal with the counterfeiting issue. Kodak discusses this worldwide problem and the various needs of brand owners and battery manufacturers, and the high-tech solutions that are being deployed to prevent the rising tide of dangerous fakes.
Steven J. Powell, General Manager and Director, Security Solutions
Eastman Kodak Company
Steve Powell currently serves as the general manager and director of the Security Solutions business within Kodak's Graphic Communications Group. Here Steve utilizes his business and marketing experience to drive the adoption of proprietary anticounterfeiting solutions to address the product and brand protection needs of customers in printing, packaging, bulk materials and other industry segments.

10:00 Networking Break

10:15 Product Demonstrations

10:30 - 12:15 General Sessions (three tracks running simultaneously)
Battery Hybrid Track
Extended Run Backup Power for Critical Communications Networks – Battery/Fuel Cell Combinations
In combination with batteries, fuel cell technology can be used to improve reliability and significantly extend run times at mission critical sites when compared to battery-only configurations. As fuel cell technologies advance, more solutions are developed to combat power outages. Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell systems offer a compelling value proposition to telecommunications carriers and others who require highly reliable critical backup and remote power solutions.
Bill Shank, Vice President of North American Sales
IdaTech
Bill Shank, vice president of North American sales, is a 24 year sales veteran of the telecommunications industry. He has accountability for the North American promotion of IdaTech's back-up power solutions. A graduate of Southern Illinois University, Bill derived the foundation of his leadership principles and technical knowledge from ten years of service in the US Navy.

Battery Electric Vehicles with Fuel Cell Range Extenders: Cars with CO₂ Emissions’ Below EU Targets
From 2012 the European Union is introducing punitive new measures designed to reduce emissions form passenger cars. With gas prices as high as $8 per gallon in the EU, there is major incentive to increase fuel efficiency. Voller Energy Group PLC is one of the first companies in the world from which you can buy fuel cell systems that run from available fuels. These systems can act as on-board chargers for electric vehicle batteries, extending the range of the vehicle substantially. These vehicles are able to provide a transition from existing ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) and diesel cars to hybrid and electric vehicles (EV’s) but with much greater fuel efficiency and lower emissions. These vehicles will have carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions lower than the EU targets of 130g/Km by 2012 and 100g/Km by 2020.
Stephen Voller, Chief Executive Officer
Voller Energy
Stephen Voller founded Voller Energy in 2002 with Mike Clarke to focus on the manufacturing of portable fuel cell systems for use as battery chargers and mobile generators. The company received two UK Government development grants before floating on the London Stock Exchange in February 2005. Previously Stephen was managing director of Netscape UK and a Sales Manager at IBM. Stephen has a degree in Data Processing from the University of Leeds, is a Chartered Engineer, a Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a member of the Parliamentary Renewable and Sustainable Energy Group (PRASEG) and an independent member of PITCOM - the UK Parliamentary IT Committee. Stephen was a finalist in the 2006 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards.

Fuel Cell Integration Into a Battery Electric Utility Vehicle
Battery only electric turf vehicle designers struggle with the trade-offs between weight (payload and vehicle), range and cost. Fuel cell technology, along with batteries, offers a range extension solution.  Learn about how batteries are still an integral part of an compact, lightweight all electric turf vehicle.
Mark Anderson, Senior R&D Engineer
Toro
Mark Anderson has been at Toro 13 years, and is responsible for Research and Development of the Commercial Division of Toro. He works on machines that will hopefully be in production within two to 10 years. He has had a variety of engineering experiences, most of them in the controls and human interface end of machine design. Mark is a 1979 graduate of North Dakota State University in Fargo.

Battery Manufacturing Track
Laser Welding for Battery Pack Manufacture
Welding for battery pack manufacture has been and continues to be successfully provided by resistance welding technology. However with growing manufacturing volume and diversity for battery packs there are a number of welding applications that are starting to favor laser welding.  These areas include increasing pack throughput, increasing the number of welds on a tab, welding tabs to small terminals, welding thicker and more conductive tabs. Laser welding has become a well established manufacturing process backed by industrially proven technology.  Laser welding is a non contact process that has no mechanical contact with the part to be welded.   This offers the following benefits; instantaneous welding (a single weld typically takes 10ms), the laser can access small or recessed areas, there are no process consumables such as electrodes that need to maintained, there is no limitation on the proximity of welds (shunting is not a factor) and the laser is geared for flexibility and automation. The basic technology of laser welding will be introduced with examples of battery welding applications.
Geoff Shannon, PhD, Product Manager
Miyachi Unitek Corp.