Welcome to the Texas Instruments Introduction to Battery Management product training module, part one. This is the first in a 5-part series that covers some of the key aspects of battery technology. The applications for rechargeable batteries have grown dramatically in the last several years. Until the 1990s, there were only two common types of rechargeable systems – either Lead-Acid or Nickel-Cadmium. Since then, advances in battery technology have enabled many of the applications that are taken for granted today. Nickel-Metal-Hydride was first developed as a higher performance alternative to NiCd in the late 1980s. Since the advent of Lithium-Ion batteries in the early 1990s, there has been a growth of mobile computing, communications, and entertainment devices that would have been impossible without a small, lightweight, high performance battery technology. More recently, Lithium-Ion batteries have been optimized for other applications like power tools, UPS power backup, and even electric vehicles. While Lithium-Ion batteries have many performance benefits, they do require electronic monitoring and control systems. The details of how the battery management electronics operate will be covered by later sections of this tutorial.