Design of Battery Balancing Unit of Satellite Using BQ77PL900

Multi-cell batteries play crucial role in satellite operation by ensuring power storage capability. However, due to their higher failure rates, battery management systems are used in satellite batteries to perform cell balancing, monitoring and protection to avoid over/under voltage. This ensures safe operation and prolongs battery life. The conventional methods use inadequate dissipative techniques causing excessive heating and power losses in the batteries. This paper proposes a scalable, modular and optimal design technique for battery balancing. This proposed design performs cell balancing using an intelligent passive cell balancing technique based on Texas Instruments BQ77PL900. The results have shown that the design is the economical yet effective solution for the given problem having low power consumption along with high reliability.