Cell balancing techniques for Li-ion batteries in healthcare devices

Healthcare is transforming rapidly with the proliferation of patient monitoring devices, which are connected for speedy and better communication and remote monitoring. These healthcare devices usually comprise rechargeable and portable lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries. The state of charge (SOC) of some cells in these battery packs usually mismatches to other cells. This happens due to the imbalanced self-discharge rates, varying leakage current values and the temperature over the repetitive charge/discharge cycles. This charge imbalance exacerbates the battery pack performance for further charge/discharge cycles and limits the overall performance of the battery. Therefore, an efficient and sophisticated battery management system (BMS) is needed for cell balancing of Lithium-ion battery or smooth running and extracting the maximum energy of a battery pack in healthcare devices. In this research, a review of different converters-based cell balancing topologies has been presented for the li-ion battery pack. This paper discusses the energy-efficient, DC-DC converters-based cell balancing techniques for medical devices to incorporate optimized cell balancing techniques based on circuit design, balancing time, implementation simplicity, and cost of the system.