The application areas of batteries are currently booming. The recent generation of devices combines a high energy density with a reasonable cost and life expectancy, making them suitable not only for cars but also electric bikes, scooters, forklifts, gardening and household tools, storage batteries as well as airborne applications such as drones, helicopters, and small airplanes. Since manufacturing batteries requires a lot of energy and minerals, extending the life of the battery is worthwhile from both an ecologic and an economic point of view. The use of Battery Management Systems (BMS) can extend battery life, if they are used with a sound understanding of the internal electrical processes. This book provides insight into the electric behaviour of batteries for researchers involved with the design of battery management systems, and experts involved with electric vehicle development. It covers a range of options for designing battery management and cell balancing systems, with a focus on inductive balancing. After an overview of previous and current battery types, chapters convey a number of cell-balancing techniques, such as passive and active equalizer circuits, with a focus on transformer and coupled inductor based balancing methods. In addition, cell voltage monitoring and charging are investigated. Furthermore, solutions are provided to reduce the number of inductive components, the number of windings, and practical implementation.

Alex Van den Bossche received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Electromechanical Engineering from Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium in 1980 and 1990, respectively. He worked at the university's Electrical Energy Laboratory. He is a professor at the same university in the same field. His research is in the field of electrical drives, power electronics on various inverter types and passive components, magnetic materials, and battery management system for electric vehicles. He started three spin-off companies active in power electronics and energy conversion. He is not only interested in renewable energy conversion, battery management, but also more direct use of solar PV. He is an author of the book entitled Inductors and Transformers for Power Electronics.