Feature: Batteries


which problems at a cell level are detected, undermining reliability and safety, while the aggregated insight provided to the battery management system (BMS) can reduce performance. Tese factors are the driving motives behind innovative battery designs, such as CTP and CTC architectures, that aim to remove the modular layer. If you can shiſt the monitoring of parameters like temperature and voltage to a cell level, it is possible to increase battery safety, efficiency,and optimise cell loading during discharge and recharge cycles. However, shiſting to more granular cell-


flexibility and scalability, especially as the total demand for high-voltage batteries continues to grow.


Can you discuss the various battery chemistries used today and the advantages and disadvantages of each in terms of performance, safety and cost? Lithium-ion (Li-ion) remains the


dominant chemistry due to its high energy density and relative longevity, making it suitable for a wide range of automotive and industrial applications. Li-ion is a broad name encompassing several different chemistries, such as nickel-manganese- cobalt (NMC) and lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP), the two most popular, that offer distinct trade-offs between capacity, performance and cost. NMC cells can offer higher energy density


and performance, making them well suited for applications like passenger EVs. However, they are more expensive and less stable than LFP cells. LFP offers slightly lower energy density and are more challenging to track State of Charge, but deliver improved safety and cost-effectiveness, making them ideal for more affordable EVs, plus larger commercial or industrial vehicles applications like buses, as well as BESS.


16 June 2025 www.electronicsworld.co.uk Other emerging alternatives such as


Sodium-ion can offer unique advantages in cell safety and material availability, and ‘solid-state’ cells have long been seen as the ‘holy grail’ of performance, power density and longevity, but have so far faced challenges with cost and mass production viability. Te range of battery chemistries on


the market reflects the scale and diversity of electrification required for global sustainability. It also highlights the real need for flexible battery monitoring that can seamlessly adapt to the specific requirements of each chemistry, ensuring performance and safety are maintained across a wide range of applications.


With electrification continuing to propagate across increasingly varied environments, and performance requirements increasing, how are battery architectures adapting to meet the demands of modern applications? Traditionally, high-power batteries


use wired architectures that rely on aggregated data across groups of cells (modules), but this is proving limiting for a number of reasons. Module level sensing can effectively hinder the speed at


level monitoring comes with challenges. If using a traditional wired architecture, there would be a significant increase in wiring complexity and connector count. In automotive applications, this leads to increased costs and impedes the development of larger, higher-capacity batteries necessary for applications such as mining and construction. Furthermore, the extensive wiring required for cell-level monitoring would drive up manufacturing complexity while simultaneously introducing more potential failure points, reducing reliability in harsh environments. For BESS, cell-level monitoring can


allow cell issues to be detected earlier, enabling prompt preventative maintenance which, in turn, can reduce downtime and mitigate financial repercussions. However, additional wiring would further complicate maintenance tasks, increasing the time required in disassembly and reassembly. A shiſt from module- to cell-level


monitoring aligns with the market’s technical requirements of improved safety, longevity, design complexity and performance, but the design, manufacturing and maintenance complexity of wired architectures do not. A shiſt to a wireless architecture is perhaps the change that first comes to mind, but with noisy high-voltage batteries, this comes with a number of other challenges. Tese are the reasons why we took a different route with our near field contactless architecture for the Dukosi Cell Monitoring System (DKCMS).


In the development of a cell monitoring solution such as DKCMS, what engineering factors were considered, what


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