Life-time analysis of batteries used in portable digital systems

Achieving long battery life-time is the main goal in the design of several classes of portable applications. The capability of monitoring the impact of different design options on the discharge rate of the battery is thus the key to guarantee the quality of the chosen optimizations. In this paper, we demonstrate experimentally how a battery model suitable for high-level digital simulation can be of help for studying the variations of the life-time of a battery when different loading conditions are assumed. In particular, the impact of the profile of the load current drawn from the battery on life-time is investigated in detail for the realistic case of Lithium-Ion batteries.