Alcatel and MPower work towards smarter batteries

Alcatel and MPower Batteries are to work together on the design of innovative chips for battery packs to be used in applications such as cell phones, private mobile radios, PDAs and digital cameras.

Alcatel and MPower Batteries are to work together on the design of innovative chips for battery packs to be used in applications such as cell phones, private mobile radios, PDAs and digital cameras.

The pooling of the technological skills and experience of Alcatel as a silicon manufacturer and Mpower as a battery pack manufacturer will result in the production of more efficient and economic battery packs for the hand portable equipment markets.

Alcatel has vast experience in the design and manufacture of mixed-signal ICs for a wide range of electronic equipment applications while MPower Batteries is an established supplier of battery packs to OEMs.

For MPower the partnership is a key component of its strategic development as a leading player in the world portable power market.

Managing director John Blinkhorne commented: "This agreement puts MPower in a very strong position to develop innovative and cost-effective solutions to customers in the rapidly evolving lithium-ion battery pack sector.

I am sure that Alcatel's technical expertise in integrated circuits coupled with our proven ability to deliver high-performance custom-designed power-packs will prove a winning combination in the years ahead".

"Joining forces with MPower allows us to develop innovative ICs for the battery pack market.

Adding MPower's expertise in custom-designed battery packs to Alcatel's IC design expertise will result in very innovative battery-embedded ICs.

Hand portable equipment manufacturers will benefit from cost-effective and smaller battery packs", stated Vincent Mouret, Vice President and General Manager for Alcatel's microelectronics wireless solutions.

"As a result, hand portable equipment manufacturers will be able to offer their customers significantly better performing products".

The first joint project for Alcatel and MPower is the development of a range of battery protection mechanisms for Li-ion and Li-polymer batteries.

According to Christophe Pilot of Avicenne Developpement: "The market for Li-ion and polymer batteries is rapidly growing.

In 2001 approximately 330 million battery packs were shipped.

This number is expected to grow to approximately 660 million packs 2006.

The total value of the market of protection circuits in these packs will be about US $600 million in the year 2006".

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