Supplement: Power
How parallel battery charging with USB-C helps to enhance the consumer experience
By Kyle Johnson, applications engineer, Analog Devices U
SB-C ports are becoming the standard for consumer devices as they have a lot more flexibility than previous USB ports. Among these devices,
higher power and longer battery life are some of the qualities that are gaining popularity. Thus, the need to charge these devices at higher power levels is now increasingly necessary. This article will introduce the basics of parallel battery charging architecture and use cases along with the effect of incorporating USB-C into those use cases. Additionally, this article covers the integration, benefits, and drawbacks of parallel battery charging and USB-C in the consumer market.
What is parallel battery charging? In battery management systems, there are a few ways to manipulate the configuration of your batteries to achieve different outcomes. One can place their batteries in a series configuration, which provides a higher voltage, but the same battery capacity, which usually applies to higher power products. The other option is to place the batteries in a parallel configuration, which results in a higher capacity, but the same voltage. Now that longer battery life is such a critical factor for consumer devices, manufacturers need to become creative with the ways they conserve and extend a battery pack’s useful capacity. The best way to implement a simple solution for longer battery life is to have parallel charging. Simply put, parallel charging batteries allow the user to charge multiple batteries at once, which provides longer battery life and increased reliability for the user. Figure 1 provides a basic description of series and parallel battery configurations that are commonly used.
USB-C’s integration into the modern parallel battery charging market As mentioned previously, USB-C ports and devices have the ability to be charged at higher power levels compared to previous
38 February 2024 Figure 1. Series and parallel battery configuration.
USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 counterparts. The most recent version of the USB-C spec, Power Delivery 3.1, can deliver up to 240W.
Now, for most consumer products, this may be overkill, but this is to emphasise the point of the increased robustness that
Table 1. Benefits of USB-C and parallel battery charging Single cable
levels
Time saver
electronic waste over
Components in Electronics
USB-C offers compared to the previous USB generations. This increase in power from USB-C ports pairs hand in hand with
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