Cambridge EnerTech’s

Battery Power for Consumer Electronics

Increasing Performance & Safety of Batteries for Portable Devices

March 27-28, 2019

OEM's requirements for safe, lower cost and higher energy density batteries for portable electronic devices continue to exponentially increase. These increased requirements have created significant market opportunities for battery developers. This conference will focus on the latest technological advancements in portable power for such devices as smart phones, wearables, tablets, laptops, medical devices and power tools. The conference presentations will provide an in-depth analysis of emerging new and improved chemistries, design and engineering for advanced battery development. In addition, an examination of the latest charging technologies and advances in safety will be addressed. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to network with the complete battery development ecosystem, from principal scientists to device manufacturers.

Final Agenda

Wednesday, March 27

PALM BALLROOM

1:45 Plenary Keynote Session: Organizer's Remarks

1:50 Shep Wolsky Battery Innovator Award

2:00 PANEL DISCUSSION: What Innovations/Advancements Do OEMs Need to Enable Near-Term, Large-Scale Production?

Moderator:

Celina Mikolajczak, Director of Engineering, Energy Storage Systems, Uber

Panelists:

Mohamed Alamgir, PhD, Research Director, LG Chem

Timothy Arthur, PhD, Principal Scientist, Materials Research Department, Toyota Research Institute of North America

Micheal Austin, Vice President, BYD US Operations (BYD America-IT, BYD Motors, BYD Energy)

Craig Rigby, Vice President Technology, Power Solutions, Johnson Controls

Bob Taenaka, Technical Specialist, Battery System Development, Ford Motor Company

What do OEMs need for near term, large-scale innovation? Can the global battery R&D community deliver on what advancements OEMs need for large-scale production? Our distinguished panel will discuss what they need to innovate and what they anticipate their future requirements will be. In addition, our panelists will discuss what innovation can be achieved to meet the OEMs requirements.

2:55 Refreshment Break in the Exhibit Hall with Poster Viewing

3:40 Organizer’s Opening Remarks

Craig Wohlers, Executive Director, Conferences, Cambridge EnerTech

3:45 Chairperson’s Remarks

Brian Barnett, President, Battery Perspectives

3:50 Requirement and Forecast of Li-Ion Battery for Portable Home Appliances

Chia-Ying Lee, PhD, Principal Battery Engineer, SharkNinja

With suitable battery designs to electrify home appliances, new categories of Li-ion battery applications are emerging. However, there are still design challenges that need to be solved by both the battery and appliance companies. To address that, two topics will be discussed during this presentation: 1) The latest development status and battery requirements for cordless vacuums 2) Trend forecasting of Li-ion battery in future home appliances.

4:20 Battery Innovation Driving Consumer Experience

Rick Thompson, Chief Battery Technologist, Dell Technologies

Expectations for mobile electronics continue to evolve. Battery will remain a core piece of the customer experience. This talk will address components of “worry free” mobile power, device level battery management, and product opportunities for advanced battery technology.

4:50 Next Generation Battery Management Using AI for Consumer Devices

Jeremy Carlson, Battery Technology Engineer, Lenovo

As battery energy density continues to increase in consumer devices, the need for individualized battery management becomes increasingly necessary. Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, cloud-based or local AI can deliver an individualized battery experience based on the user’s habits. This methodology can be used to increase battery performance and longevity as well as the best user experience for the customer.

5:20 Dinner Tutorial Registration*

5:45 – 7:45 Dinner Tutorial*

7:45 Close of Day

Thursday, March 28

7:30 am Registration Open

7:45 Interactive Breakout Discussion Groups with Continental Breakfast
GRAND PREFUNCTION

The breakouts are informal, moderated discussions with brainstorming and interactive problem solving, allowing participants from diverse backgrounds to exchange ideas and experiences and develop future collaborations around a focused topic. Each topic is led by a moderator who ensures focused conversation around the key issues of that topic. Attendees choose to join a specific group. View list of topics here.

8:45 Session Break

9:00 Chairperson’s Remarks

Bill von Novak, Principal Engineer, Qualcomm

9:05 Advancement in Power Battery Technology for Consumer Markets

Mattias Simonsson, Channel Manager, Stanley, Black and Decker

The ever increasing need for longer run time and more power keeps pushing the envelope for what can be accomplished with battery technology. A combination of cell construction changes, advancements in chemistry and innovation in battery pack design is enabling batteries to do what previously could only be done with power cords or gasoline combustion engines.

9:35 Introduction to Medtronic 2nd Generation Rechargeable Battery Technology

Hui Ye, PhD, Senior Principal Scientist, Medtronic

Medtronic’s 2nd gen rechargeable Li ion battery Overdrive, released with the Intellis spinal cord stimulators, offers many breakthrough patient-friendly attributes. Overdrive allows recharge from empty to full in less than one hour and offers less than 5% capacity fade after continuous 9 years of operation under most demanding use conditions. This presentation will discuss the design philosophy of Overdrive battery chemistry, and the strategy to test and predict its performance over time.

10:05 Development of Rechargeable Alkaline Silver-Zinc Microbatteries for Medical and Consumer Devices

Timothy Powers, Director, Applications Engineering, Engineering, ZPower, LLC
Known for its stability and high energy density, silver-zinc batteries have been used by NASA and the military for mission-critical applications for years, including the Apollo missions, submarine torpedoes, and other underwater submersible craft. Innovation by ZPower in the miniaturization of aqueous silver-zinc microbatteries have enabled improvements in cycle life, rendering the technology useable for medical and consumer devices. Rechargeable silver-zinc alkaline batteries by ZPower allow for a reliable and safe alternative, especially with regard to body-worn applications.

10:35 Coffee Break in the Exhibit Hall with Poster Viewing

11:20 Studying Lithium Ion Battery Behavior to Deliver Better User Experience

Kamal Shah, Director, Platform Architecture Management Client Computing Group, Intel Corp; Chairman, Mobile PC Extended Battery Life Working Group, EBLWG

Mobile devices such as smartphone, laptops, etc. are an integral part of our modern lives. Delivering better user experiences require holistic approach which includes comprehending the battery’s ability to support improved user experiences. This presentation discusses motivation to understand battery behavior to support better user experiences, results of some of the experiments on batteries ability to supply power needed, as well as wear out impact and results of experiments based on revised discharge profiles.

11:50 Adaption of System Design to High Voltage Li-Ion Battery Technology

Jeff Bruce, Director, Battery Technologies, Microsoft

With the continued development and implementation of high voltage chemistries (e.g., above 4.2V), the consumer electronics industry faces new challenges from rapid gas generation and cell swelling. In the era of high-voltage chemistries, many factors could have visible impact on battery degradations, including capacity fading and cell swelling. Here, we discuss cause and effect, some methods of mitigation through system design, and the role that the end user can have in mitigating or prevention of accelerated degradation.

12:20 pm Charging Lithium Ion Batteries with Qualcomm Quickcharge

Bill von Novak, Principal Engineer, Qualcomm

Rapid charging of lithium ion batteries has recently become possible due to changes in battery design allowing greater than 1C charge rates. However, rapid charging requires sufficient power to achieve those greater than 1C rates – and often charge current is limited by connector design and wire-gauge limitations in charging accessories. This talk will describe how to use Qualcomm’s Quickcharge technologies to overcome these limitations and allow very high charge rates with standard device connectors.

12:50 Walking Luncheon in the Exhibit Hall with Poster Viewing or Plated Luncheon in the Exhibit Hall Foyer

1:50 Dessert Break in the Exhibit Hall with Poster Viewing

2:20 Chairperson’s Remarks

Kamal Shah, Director, Platform Architecture Management Client Computing Group, Intel Corp; Chairman, Mobile PC Extended Battery Life Working Group, EBLWG

2:25 3D Cell Architecture Enables a High-Capacity Silicon Anode: Over 900 Wh/l Energy Density and 500 Cycle Life

Murali Ramasubramanian, Vice President, R&D, Enovix

A silicon anode can significantly increase the energy density of a Li-ion battery. But silicon swells up to 400% upon initial lithium absorption, has low-formation efficiency, and shrinks-and-swells externally with each charge-discharge cycle. This causes a Li-ion battery to break apart after a few cycles. Enovix has developed unique, patented 3D cell architecture that contains silicon expansion within the cell core and maintains high cell-stack pressure to eliminate external swelling. It also enables an efficient, scalable pre-lithiation process to overcome low-formation efficiency. The result is a smartphone-sized Li-ion battery with packaged energy density over 900 Wh/l and cycle life over 500 produced with commercially available Si powders using a conventional roll-to-roll process.

2:55 Life-Enhancing Advancements in Batteries for Implantable Medical Devices

Robert Rubino, Director, R&D, Greatbatch Medical, Integer

Active implantable medical devices, such as pacemakers, have been successfully powered by implanted batteries for 60 years. The success of the pacemaker has fueled the development of multiple other types of devices such as defibrillators, sensors, and neurostimulators. In order to enable and improve these life-enhancing devices, power technologies have evolved to provide reliable and improved output resulting in more patient-friendly devices with enhanced functionality.

3:25 Optical Sensing of Battery Faults

Jon Cartlidge, Commercial Manager, Consumer and Industrial Products, Battelle

In this talk, we will discuss the competing requirements for selecting waveguide materials that meet battery and optical requirements, designing devices for sufficient light transmission, and results from a series of tests. Implications for design in operating commercial scale batteries will be discussed, including design revisions to leverage low-cost components available from the telecommunications and medical device industries.

3:55 Wearables – Differences in Evaluating Cell Quality When Downsizing Capacity

Alexandra Emly, PhD, Manager, Exponent

Lithium-ion batteries are gaining a stronghold in the wearables market for their energy density and light weight. Although the lower energy also correlates with potentially less catastrophic failures, lower energy also means that out-of-the-box tests used for evaluating safety of larger lithium-ion cells don’t work well in accurately evaluating cell safety. This talk will discuss differences to consider when sourcing and vetting small lithium-ion cells.

4:25 Networking Refreshment Break

PALM BALLROOM

4:40 Closing Plenary Keynote Session: Organizer's Remarks

4:40 - 5:40pm PANEL DISCUSSION: Solving the Innovation Barrier for Production of Improved Li-Ion

Moderator:

Brian Barnett, President, Battery Perspectives

Panelists:

Michael Fetcenko, Director, Global Licensing, BASF Battery Materials, BASF

Tobias Glossman, Senior Engineer, Mercedes-Benz Research and Development North America

Bruce Miller, Technology Strategist, Dell

Donald R. Sadoway, PhD, John F. Elliott Professor of Materials Chemistry, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Paul Schiffbanker, Product Manager Battery Systems, AVL

Demands for improved lithium-ion are increasing even while markets are expanding dramatically amidst relentless cost reduction pressures. New materials, components and technologies are required, and an unprecedented level of R&D is responding. Battery manufacturers and their suppliers face enormous engineering and investment challenges ramping up production. One consequence is a major innovation barrier: long multi-year qualification periods and technologies “frozen” for manufacturing. This culture requires screening of new technologies in complete cells. Most innovators do not make cells or know how to demonstrate realistic cell-level performance. This panel of experts will examine these challenges and consider approaches to unblock innovation.

5:45 Close of Conference