Simplified Lithium-ion (Li+) battery-charger testing

Li-ion (Li+) batteries are more delicate than other battery chemistries and have little tolerance for abuse. Consequently, Li+ battery chargers are complex circuits, requiring highly accurate current and voltage settings. If these accuracy requirements are not met, the charger may fail to completely charge the battery, severely reduce battery life, or otherwise degrade battery performance.

Because the charging process for Li+ batteries can take an hour or longer, testing a Li+ battery charger using its natural load (i.e. a battery) is time-consuming and inconvenient. This application note presents a simple circuit for simulating the behavior of a Li+ battery, thus providing a more convenient method for testing Li+ battery chargers than using real batteries.

View the PDF document for more information.