Self-Discharge Measurement Solutions

Lithium Ion Self-Discharge Measurement System

What is a cell’s self-discharge? Self-discharge of an electrical cell is the loss of charge over time while not connected to any load. Some amount of self-discharge is a normal attribute resulting from chemical reactions taking place within the cell. Li-Ion cells typically lose about 0.5 to 1% of their charge per month.

The lithium-ion (Li-ion) cell market is experiencing explosive growth, and this growth creates stress on cell manufacturing operations, with pressures on process costs, inventories, and deliveries. It’s a challenge for Li-Ion cell manufacturers to quickly discern whether newly formed cells exhibit acceptable self-discharge behavior.

Lithium-Ion cell and battery performance testing is both a priority and a challenge for engineers in design or manufacturing. This is especially true for evaluating Li-ion cells for self-discharge. Lithium-Ion cells exhibiting high levels of self-discharge have higher likelihood of failure and must be sorted out and the cause identified. Unfortunately, this has traditionally been a long and tedious process to perform. Traditionally, self-discharge isn’t a complicated measurement – it’s relatively straightforward to measure how the open circuit voltage (OCV) of cells changes over time. The issue is how long it takes for that OCV to change enough to reliably tell whether the self-discharge of your cells is within acceptable limits.

Breakthrough Li-Ion Self Discharge Measurement Solutions

Now you can directly measure self-discharge current in 1–2 hours instead of monitoring cell open circuit voltage over weeks or months and quickly measure and analyze self-discharge current during cell design and evaluation.

Keysight’s new solutions of Li-Ion self discharge measurement solutions provide a revolutionary reduction in the time to measure and characterize self-discharge performance of Lithium-Ion cells. These Lithium-ion self discharge measurement solutions determine a cell’s self-discharge by directly measuring its self-discharge current.

• Directly measure self-discharge current in as little as 1–2 hours instead of monitoring cell open circuit voltage over days or weeks.
• Rapidly discern good vs. bad cell self-discharge performance in manufacturing in minutes. Dramatically decrease work-in-process inventory.
• Quickly measure and analyze self-discharge current during cell design and evaluation. Reduce design cycle time and get to market faster.