In all battery-operated portable and wearable devices, the battery is an important component. The primary function of the battery is to provide matched power for proper operations. A mismatch between the two may compromise the functionalities, provide inaccurate measurements, or lead to premature end-of-life of the device.

In addition to the power-generating capability, other characteristics are also important when selecting a battery: rechargeable or primary, physical shape / dimensions / flexibility, internal resistance, and shelf or cycle life. Furthermore, there are batteries of different chemistries available in the market. How do we choose the ones that will satisfy the requirement? If no ideal solution exist, is there any possibility for custom-made batteries?

In this presentation, different types of batteries will be introduced with healthcare applications in mind. The characteristics of these batteries will be summarized and compared; to help design engineers select the right one. Furthermore, if nothing matches the requirement, the process of creating an alternative solution is suggested.

Dr. Han Wu is currently the Director of Technology at Renata Batteries US. He has over 30 years of experience in batteries, the manufacturing of lithium battery and other chemistries, cathode material development, battery testing, charge efficiencies and charger designs. He is especially interested in finding synergies by combining battery and related technologies to improve the efficiency of the applications.

 

Prior to moving into the lithium chemistry, he also worked in the development and manufacturing of nickel-based batteries and ultracapacitors.

 

At Renata Batteries US, Dr. Wu works to help customers with applications of batteries in a broad range of devices. Before joining Renata Batteries, he worked with Brightvolt, BASF, Dow-Kokam, and other battery development and manufacturing facilities. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology, specialized in Electrochemical engineering.

Renata with its head office in Itingen near Basel (Switzerland), is a worldwide leading producer of micro-batteries for electronic applications. The business - founded in 1952 with the goal to produce mechanical parts for wrist-watches - specialized in button-battery cells in the late 70s and after this focused on the wrist-watch industry.

 

The modern production plant in Itingen, where all services (research and development, production, quality assurance and marketing) are grouped, is highly automated and produces over one million batteries a day. This includes silver-oxide batteries for wrist watches, zinc-air batteries for hearing aids, rechargeable lithium batteries in coin cell format for IoT devices, and also lithium 3V thin-film and button cells for consumers, industries, and industrial-electronics, for telecommunication, medical use and PCs.