Internal Short Circuit (ISC) Device Helps Improve Lithium-Ion Battery Design

Battery safety is key to the acceptance and penetration of electric vehicles into the marketplace. When battery internal shorts occur, they tend to surface without warning, and usually after the cell has been in use for several months. While some failures simply result in the cell getting very hot, in extreme cases, cells go into thermal runaway, igniting the device in which they are installed. The most publicized failures involved burning laptop and cellphone batteries, and resulted in millions of recalls.