In a meeting with Asia's technology journalists back in the summer of 2004, Balu Balakrishnan, president and CEO of Power Integrations Inc., talked about the design barriers for power supplies and how these barriers were more historical than technical.

Balakrishnan, who liked to call himself chief energy officer, cited the evolution of AC-to-DC power supplies, which hasn't benefited much from chip integration. Since the 1970s, he said, the industry has relied on high-voltage transistors that drove discrete devices in the power electronics arena.

Balakrishnan also told his audience that power-supply technology for PCs was about 20 years old and that nobody wanted to build new technology, given the time and cost required to move to new designs.

In the meantime, during the last 10 years or so, battery capacity increased twofold. Aug. 15, 2006 was the day of reckoning as Dell Inc. announced the recall of 4.1 million battery packs supplied by Sony Corp. Dell reported two battery-overheat incidents in Japan and six in the United States.

A week later, Apple Computer followed suit by recalling 1.8 million battery packs from Sony. Apple reported one overheat incident in Japan and nine in the U.S.

EE Times cried "Power supply a ticking bomb" on the front page of its Aug. 21, 2006 issue. Everything from battery design and cell density to overvoltage protection and power subsystems hogged the limelight. The electronics industry began seeking long-term engineering solutions to these battery-management problems.

Intel Corp., for instance, collaborated with Matsushita Battery Industrial Corp. to develop batteries able to run a notebook PC for eight hours without recharging. Matsushita also started producing Li-ion batteries capable of averting excessive heating.

People are also talking about the need for a brand-new technology that would prevent thermal runaway in high-capacity batteries even if particles mingle in the production process. Top notebook PC makers, including Apple, Dell and Lenovo, also began working on a safety standard for Li-ion battery manufacturing to be released in mid-2007.

The battery saga of last year somehow proves that the electronics sector at large has been more retroactive than proactive. At the same time, however, this incident provided power electronics with the impetus for better power-management solutions.

Earlier this decade, energy efficiency became a global issue with clear benefits for consumers and the environment. The rise of portable gadgets like cellphones and media players brought power and power-management ICs to the fore.

The Li-ion battery fiasco could pave the way for more intelligent silicon solutions for the otherwise price-conscious power subsystems of portable consumer products. One bright spot, for instance, could be digital power-management ICs to address safety problems in batteries.

Power-related semiconductors have gained significant momentum over the past few years, given energy conservation efforts and the rise of portable electronics. New battery-management challenges could further fuel demand for power-management ICs, signaling a banner year for power electronics.

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