Avnet, Atmel, Battery Tech develop laptop computer batteries

Avnet Electronics Marketing, a division of Avnet Inc., and Atmel Corp. in conjunction with Battery Technology Inc.'s internal engineering department, created a new line of batteries for laptop computers that rely on Atmel's AVR line of microcontrollers. The AVR features RISC-based processor core and low power 8-bit flash memory microcontroller.

With help from Avnet and Atmel, we brought engineering in house and now we control our own design destiny," said Andy Tong, Battery Tech VP of R&D.

The collaborative group effort also resulted in a design that uses fewer components, has a smaller form factor and features improved performance. "We created a total team effort between Atmel, Avnet and Battery Tech," said Andy Barbosa, Avnet account manager.

Rodney McCray, Atmel's field application engineer, added, "All of this was done to make Battery Tech more competitive. We looked at everything to help them become more competitive -- from performance and power consumption to cost and flexibility."

Tapping Avnet's supply chain expertise, Battery Tech was also able to speed the product's time-to-market. By using Avnet's point of use replenishment system (POURS), Battery Tech is assured of the right amount of inventory at exactly the time it's needed on the production floor. Battery Tech has plans to migrate additional products to the same microcontroller platform, and it continues to rely on its relationship with Avnet and Atmel in bringing new products to life.