Li-ion battery standard up for revision

IEEE will revise its Li-ion laptop battery standard—the IEEE 1625—to address the recent battery calls made and to improve overall performance as well make laptop battery systems more reliable and robust.

The project is included in the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) Corporate Program and is to be completed within 18 months.

"In revising IEEE 1625 to further safeguard the reliability of these batteries," said Edward Rashba, Manager, New Technical Programs at the IEEE-SA, "we will leverage the streamlined corporate standards process and incorporate lessons learned in developing the IEEE 1725 standard for cellular telephone batteries."

Approved in 2004, the IEEE 1625 sets guidelines for the industry in planning and implementing controls for battery design and manufacture. The "IEEE Standard for Rechargeable Batteries for Portable Computing" also defines approaches for evaluating and qualifying such batteries.

"The 1625 update will be a global effort," noted Rashba. "The leading laptop OEMs and battery manufacturers such as Apple, Dell, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Lenovo, Panasonic, Sanyo and Sony have indicated strong interest to participate." IEEE is encouraging interested parties to contact or join the working group meeting.

The group will meet bi-monthly in the United States and Asia to complete the work. The first working group meeting is set on Nov. 15-16 at Intel Corp.'s Santa Clara 12 Campus in California. A follow-on meeting is planned on Jan. 16-18 of next year in Japan.

The IEEE 1625 working group is considering updates to the existing IEEE 1625 laptop battery specification to establish compliance to the standard.

"We believe that the IEEE-SA and its 1625 Working Group, working with IEEE-ISTO [IEEE Industry Standards and Technology Organization] and other organizations, should evaluate compliance," said Chuck Adams of IBM who chairs the Corporate Advisory Group at IEEE-SA.

A potential partner is the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA), which recently created a compliance program for cellphone batteries based on IEEE 1725, according to IEEE.

To date, completed standards in the IEEE Livium family include the original IEEE 1625 mobile computer battery standard and the IEEE 1725 the mobile cell phone battery standard. Another one, IEEE P1825, is also under development for mobile batteries in digital cameras and camcorders.

IEEE Livium standards are developed within the IEEE Corporate Standards Program which involves company-based working groups in which each organization has one vote. This industry-oriented program focuses on rapid standards development, with an average standard completion time of 16 months.