Teaser text

A wireless battery management system for LiFePO4 batteries that can survive cold-soaking at -80°C and has been proven in Antarctica.

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Competitive advantage

An innovative battery management system that:

  • Has zero wiring
  • Uses infrared for communication
  • Allows hundreds of cells to be queried in seconds
  • Contains one node per cell; the firmware is programmable using infrared
  • Can program multiple nodes in parallel, from any single node
  • Completely separates digital and analogue sections for redundancy
  • Has a large current capacity for charge balancing
  • Is proven to survive 4100m altitude in Antarctica under -80°C conditions

Impact

  • Developed for use in Antarctica where reliability and low-temperature survivability are critical, and where untrained operators need to be able to replace cells easily
  • Eliminating wiring and connectors, which are the major cause of failures

Successful applications

  • Used by China’s astronomical observatories at Kunlun Station, Dome A, Antarctica.

Capabilities and facilities

  • -80°C fridge for environmental testing
  • Fault-tolerant software using low-power AVR microcontrollers

Our partners

  • Polar Research Institute of China
  • Purple Mountain Observatory, China