MIPI Alliance Forms Battery Interface Working Group for Mobile Devices

New Specifications Will Enable Low Cost Smart Batteries

Piscataway, NJ – September 15, 2010 – MIPI Alliance today announced the formation of a new Battery Interface working group, targeting such issues as counterfeit batteries, consumer safety and power management. Comprised of companies spanning the mobile ecosystem, the working group will develop new specifications for the mobile battery interface system. For more information, go to www.mipi.org/bifwg.

“Today, many mobile phones use low cost, non-smart batteries, which can be easily counterfeited,” said Markus Littow, Chair of the MIPI Alliance Battery Interface Working Group and principal system design engineer with ST-Ericsson. “Counterfeit batteries cause consumer safety problems such as exploding or burning battery packs. Smart batteries will significantly reduce the risk of counterfeit batteries. Our working group will develop specifications to enable low cost smart batteries.”

Smart battery technology offers many benefits. A special integrated circuit in the battery pack monitors the battery and reports information through the interface to the bus. Some examples of this information include but are not limited to: battery type, model number, manufacturer, characteristics, discharge rate, predicted remaining capacity, an almost-discharged alarm, temperature and voltage to provide safe fast charging.

However, most mobile manufacturers use a proprietary battery interface system forcing mobile component and battery pack manufacturers to support numerous interfaces in parallel, and often making the technology cost-prohibitive for mobile devices. By offering a battery interface specification, the Battery Interface Working Group hopes to ease design and manufacturing costs for smart batteries.

“The Battery Interface Working Group is tackling a very important issue – to both manufacturers and consumers,” said Joel Huloux, Chairman of the Board for MIPI Alliance. “Our organization strives to bring leading edge technology to the entire mobile device ecosystem. We believe the resulting specifications will spur adoption of smart battery technology.”

The working group has framed its efforts to address the hundreds of variations in current battery cell chemistry and capacity. As a result, it will only specify the pull-down resistor range and measurement accuracy. Resistor value assignment for capacity and chemistry will be left to the mobile manufacturers. Also, the group will only address the electrical portion of the battery system, not the mechanical or battery form factors.

MIPI Alliance anticipates a specification will be available for organization members by end of Q2/2011. MIPI specifications are available to MIPI Alliance member companies. Interested companies are welcome to join the MIPI Alliance. Membership includes limited royalty-free intellectual property rights and obligations. For more information on membership in the MIPI Alliance, visit www.mipi.org

About the MIPI Alliance

MIPI Alliance is a global, collaborative organization comprised of companies that span the mobile ecosystem and are committed to defining and promoting interface specifications for mobile devices. MIPI Specifications establish standards for hardware and software interfaces which drive new technology and enable faster deployment of new features and services across the mobile ecosystem.