Feature: Software & tools
current consumption. Figure 3 shows a battery profiler with a current consumption profile from a device loaded onto it. Te soſtware repeats the waveform until the battery runs out of power. Te next step is to choose the initial SoC and the termination
voltage. Designers will link the device to the emulator and begin the battery emulation with soſtware. Battery emulators constantly monitor the current, whether charging or discharging, to dynamically determine the emulated SoC. Te emulator continually adjusts its output (voltage and resistance) according to the SoC, to match the loaded battery profile. Te test finishes when the emulator reaches the termination voltage, if the emulator discharges. Designers can learn more about a device's behaviour by quickly
emulating a battery at various SoCs. Figure 4 shows what engineers can obtain from a medical device’s current drain. Data from this analysis can be used to modify the design of the IoT device to improve its battery performance.
Determining capacity loss Engineers must know the energy a battery can store and deliver to IoT devices. Battery test and emulation soſtware helps visually monitor battery charging and discharging to measure capacity. Soſtware must support constant current (CC) and voltage (CV) modes for charging batteries. When the battery is nearly full using CC mode, the soſtware must switch from CC mode to a mix of CC and CV. Tis mix is needed because a battery can’t be charged at the same rate when it reaches maximum voltage or
capacity.It is also crucial for the soſtware to support constant current, constant resistance and continuous power modes when discharging a battery. Engineers can use soſtware to test and emulate current consumption profiles directly from a device. Tis feature allows engineers to quickly discharge the battery with a profile matching the current drain during usage. Running it throughout the rundown test and simulating it using the actual device to analyse the battery drain is simpler. Battery performance can deteriorate significantly over a lifetime
of charging and discharging, which makes it essential to simulate battery cycling. Battery test and emulation soſtware is a convenient solution, but the soſtware must support data logging. Also, generating different charging and discharging profiles for a battery is very useful in a battery test and emulation soſtware solution. Designers can mix various charging and discharging sequences to simulate complex charging and discharging cycling profiles, to measure how a battery's performance declines over time. Emulation soſtware solutions are ideal for this as they can enable, for example, up to one thousand cycle operations to assess the battery's ageing effect and reliability under sequence test conditions.
Power analysis Battery profiling and emulation soſtware are essential for IoT device power analysis. Tey help improve battery life, mimic any charge and battery profile state, create more reliable and consistent test environments, and measure capacity loss and ageing. Tis is important for product quality, customer satisfaction and safety in most applications.
Figure 1: Battery profile using a battery test and emulation software
Figure 2: Setting up the battery profiler
Figure 3: Example of a device's current consumption waveform loaded into an advanced battery test and emulation software
Figure 4. Current drain analysis of a pulse oximeter medical IoT device using advanced battery test and emulation software
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