High cell count battery packs are showing up in more and more devices, helping to provide more power where it's needed most and also helping devices improve their battery life and the kinds of equipment they can support. And today, O2Micro was issued 20 claims under its new patent for a whole new advancement in charging those battery packs.

O2Micro's patent, patent 8,148,942, Charging Systems with Cell Balancing Functions, establishes a charging system for high cell count battery packs that creates floating power supplies for those same battery packs. Moreover, during the charging process, the battery cells can be automatically balanced, ensuring as little power loss during the charging process as possible. With lowered power loss during charging comes, in turn, increased efficiency, lowered overall power use, and lowered expense involved in charging these systems.

Considering that high cell count battery packs appear in everything from power tools to computer monitors to an increasingly large number of portable devices, finding a way to recharge them simply, effectively, and with as little waste as possible, becomes a downright necessity.

Just when O2Micro's newly-patented technology will make it to the consumer level is, as yet, unknown. But, considering the wide array of applications it could offer, and the savings it could represent once it does roll out, the demand for this newly-minted tech should be brisk. Getting more battery life to the products consumers use every day, and making the batteries contained therein recharge faster and with less waste improves not only on a bottom-line budget level, but also on an environmentally-friendly level as well.

Allowing users to enjoy the technology of their choice in an ecologically sound fashion that doesn't require compromises on features or overall capability is a win-win situation that most anyone can get behind. It's not hard to see plenty of impatient customers ready to get their hands on such a technology, and hopefully O2Micro will oblige.