HILLSBORO, Ore., 30 May 2006. Micro Power, provider of portable power solutions for mission-critical equipment, has upgraded its SecuraPack custom lithium battery pack, making it more resistant to dangerous malfunctions.
Micro Power has updated SecuraPack with authentication, redundant protection circuits, and Li-ion cells to enhance battery system reliability and reduce the risk of unwanted electrochemical reactions and electrical failures.
The challenge/response authentication system -- with a small microcontroller embedded in the battery pack that communicates with the processor resident in the host device -- prevents the use of an invalid battery pack.
SecuraPack's protection circuitry to disable the battery pack in the event of temperatures or currents that are out of spec. Some batteries are so crucial to a device that only dangerous events, such as thermal runaway or a short circuit, should disable the battery pack. SecuraPack's patent-pending redundant protection circuit design has two protection circuits and if one fails due to a non-safety cause, the parallel circuit can continue to operate. The battery pack is disabled only when both circuits experience a common failure event, threatening safety.
