Optimizing power management chips can extend the battery life of drones.

In recent years, the development of the drone industry has been extremely rapid. There have been a number of well-known companies such as Dajiang and Corbitt Airlines in the market, and they have attracted continuous attention from capital and industry giants. However, problems such as short endurance(the average consumer-grade drone is only about 20 minutes) still limit the use and development of drones. How to solve the battery life problem? What role can IC products play in this respect?

17 minutes of battery life, power constraints.

With the development of science and technology, in recent years, drones have expanded from the military field to the civilian field and have gradually become popular in the market. Civilian drones will account for 12 per cent of the overall drone market over the next 10 years, with a value of $98 billion, according to BIInteligence, a research firm. With the opening of our low-altitude airspace and the improvement of our policy on drone supervision, the growth rate of our civilian drones is expected to exceed 30 % in the next 10 years.

However, while the UAV market is rapidly starting up, constraints such as limited endurance are gradually emerging. Xiao Fang's technology partner Liurui, who took the development of "drone" as the direction of entrepreneurship, told reporters that the duration of the voyage has always been a bottleneck to limit the development of drone technology. At present, the drones on the market mainly use lithium batteries as the main power, and their endurance is generally between 20 and 30 minutes. This is a major gap in the development of drones, which has greatly limited the overall development potential of the drone industry.

According to the reporter's investigation, most of the multi-rotor drones on the market, including the Dajiang drone, use lithium batteries as energy. Because lithium electricity is convenient to purchase and the process is mature, due to individual differences, the core can not achieve 100 % balanced charging and discharging, and the charging time of high-power batteries is relatively long, which is more troublesome to use. The most troubling thing is its endurance. The 300-gram lithium battery can theoretically only allow 500 grams of drones to fly for 17 minutes. Even considering technical differences and body weight, most of the products have life. The time is within 45 minutes. It takes more than an hour to recharge.

Therefore, how to improve the life of drones to meet the needs of consumer and industrial markets has become a challenge that all drone manufacturers must face.

Power management technology plays a big role

How to solve the main problem of limited battery life? In this regard, Taojianzhong, general manager of Jiangsu Hongyun, said that in the absence of breakthrough progress in lithium power materials, there are two main ways to solve the drone power problem: Some manufacturers have begun to try to replace lithium power with new battery materials; In addition, the use of power management chips to achieve effective power management, as long as possible, to achieve rapid charging, is also one of the solutions to the problem.

In May 2015, HUS of Singapore developed the first HYCOTTER multi-axis drone using hydrogen fuel cells, which can fly continuously for 4 hours without a load, and can support 150 minutes even if 1 kilogram is fully loaded. At present, companies such as Dajiang and Corbitt Airlines are also trying to use hydrogen fuel cells.

However, as the most common battery material, lithium batteries are still the most important power choices for consumer-grade drones because they are solid power sources and are mature in technology and safe to use. In September 2015, for example, Tesla, a leader in electric vehicles, unveiled a prototype of a drone designed specifically for aerial photography applications. With its strength in battery and power management technology, Tesla has equipped the 10000mAh battery on the drone. A single charge can last for 60 minutes and the charging time is only about 20 minutes.

In this case, superior power management chip technology has become one of the key factors that affect the success or failure of the UAV market.

Seeking balanced charging is the key.

So, what is the current development of power management chip technology in the drone market? According to Sai Wei Electronics, the battery management chip is a chip that monitors the status, charging management, and safety and protection management of batteries in electronic equipment. It can perform charging current voltage control, battery safety and security, and accurate battery residual capacity prediction. The performance of battery management IC has a great impact on the safety of electronic equipment operation and use.

Wangqiaodi, technology product marketing manager of the IPD/AMS market and application Department of St-microelectronics, also said that the application of power management chips has been very extensive, with smart phones, laptops, charging devices, tablets, smart wearable devices and other products. Power management chips are widely used. At the same time, with the increasing power consumption of electronic products, the rapid charging through power management chips has become an important part of the current market.

Smart phones are still the biggest market for fast-charging applications. Qualcomm, Mediatek, TI, Apple, and OPPO are all leading their own standard fast charging programs. In 2016, the smart phone chip platform of Qualcomm and Mediatek continued to upgrade. Apple also decided to increase the number of tiles in the new power supply of the mobile phone from the original 15W to 20W, hoping to shorten the charging time through higher currents to achieve a fast charging effect.

UAVs are the latest and most promising market for fast charging technology. According to Taojianzhong, smart phones are similar to drones in terms of power management chips. However, the charging of mobile phones is constrained by USB interfaces and batteries. The USB interface is generally 5V power supply. At present, the maximum cell phone battery is 4.2 V under normal circumstances. Gaodianya's fast charge will eventually drop to the voltage that the cell phone battery can withstand, and fast charge will be achieved by increasing the current. Although the principle of rapid charging of drones is the same as that of mobile phones, it also needs to increase the voltage or increase the current. The difference is that the drone battery may be a few lithium batteries in series(such as three batteries 3 × 4 = 12V, that is, 12V). Charge), Because the battery is connected in series, it is necessary to consider the issue of balanced charging in case the charging imbalance causes an accident.

As for future technological developments, mobile phone fast charging technology, on the one hand, tries to find a way to provide Gaodianya(such as 12V) for mobile phones to be converted to high current, and on the other hand, pay attention to the communication protocol of mobile phones and adapters to prevent Gaodianya from burning the phone. Bad. The drone does not have this restriction. It is the fastest to provide each battery with the maximum voltage and current it can withstand. Therefore, there is still a lot of room for the development of UAV technology in the future.

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