Last month, MET Labs attended a CTIA Battery Certification Program meeting in San Antonio, Texas. The agenda included a review and update of the certification program documents (CRD, PMD, CRSL). There was also a discussion to expand the program to include battery life testing. In attendance were all the system vendors, CTIA-Approved Test Labs (CATLs) and carriers such as Verizon and AT&T.
Some of the key updates made in the Certification Documents were:
- The manufacturing location as well as the entity controlling the design of the battery shall both meet the ISO 9000 requirements.
- System or cell operating outside its temperature or voltage range shall be shut down and not allow 911 calls.
- CTIA will adopt the definition of coin cells in UN 38.3 to define the appropriate battery chemistries that can be considered under IEEE 1725.
- Adapters shall be compliant with USB-IF Battery Charging Specification Rev 1.2 and OMTP1.1 to avoid compatibility issues (and slow charging rates) between different OEM chargers and devices.
- Burr control will be harmonized in CRDs for both IEEE 1625 & 1725.
- Battery identification is required for both embedded and user-replaceable battery packs.
- Battery packs installed in its host and normal application of the device is above head level, the drop height shall be 1500mm; for all others the drop height shall be 1000mm.
There was also a proposal to include battery life testing mainly for smart phones. The proposal included creating a working group to develop an accurate battery life test standard for smart phones that will cover the following parameters:
- User profile
- Network settings
- Device settings
Read more about the CTIA Battery Certification Program in this previous post.
