Scalable power solutions for battery formation equipment, delivering ultra‑accurate charge/discharge control, high efficiency, and energy recovery to accelerate EV and energy storage manufacturing.
Battery formation is a critical stage in advanced battery manufacturing, responsible for activating newly assembled cells through precisely controlled charge–discharge cycles to establish the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) layer. This process determines a battery’s usable capacity, long-term reliability, and safety, while also representing one of the most time- and capital-intensive steps in battery production. Modern battery formation equipment operates as a highly accurate, multi-channel switched-mode power supply (SMPS) platform, capable of delivering and absorbing DC power across thousands of parallel channels. As global demand for electric vehicles (EVs) and energy storage systems (ESS) accelerates, formation systems have become a key production bottleneck, driving the need for higher throughput, tighter electrical control, and dramatically improved energy efficiency.
onsemi's advanced power electronics are reshaping battery formation system architectures. Wide-bandgap (WBG) technologies such as silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) enable higher switching frequencies, lower losses, and greater power density, making fast formation, bidirectional energy flow, and modular system design feasible. Regenerative architectures now recycle discharge energy back to other channels or the grid, achieving system efficiencies above 90% and significantly reducing thermal and infrastructure demands. Combined with advanced AC‑DC power factor correction (PFC), isolated DC‑DC stages, and high‑current multi-channel output converters, these innovations allow battery manufacturers to shorten formation time, improve energy utilization, and scale reliably for next-generation gigafactories.
EliteSiC MOSFETs and CJFETs enable efficient, scalable battery formation with fast switching, high voltage capability, and reduced system losses for Li‑ion production lines.
View Products Learn More
Explore the cutting-edge lateral and vertical GaN technologies optimized for AI data centers, EVs, renewable energy, robotics, and high‑efficiency industrial power systems.
Read Tutorial Learn More
Explore onsemi’s MOSFET technologies, including PowerTrench® T10, Top‑Cool packaging, and simulation tools for automotive and industrial power designs.
View Products Learn More
Our gate driver offers enhanced performance, efficiency, and reliability for specific applications, providing precise control, minimize switching losses, and integrate robustness.
View Products Read Tutorial
Our SiC MOSFETs are designed to be fast and rugged and include system benefits from high efficiency to reduced system size and cost. MOSFETs are metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors with insulated gates. These silicon carbide MOSFETs have a higher blocking voltage and higher thermal conductivity than silicon MOSFETs, despite having similar design elements. SiC power devices also have a lower state resistance and 10 times the breakdown strength of regular silicon. In general, Systems with SiC MOSFETs have better performance and increased efficiency when compared to MOSFETs made with silicon material.
There are many advantages to choosing SiC MOSFETs over silicon MOSFETs, such as higher switching frequencies. High-temperature development is also not a concern when using SiC MOSFET modules because these devices can operate efficiently even in high heat. Additionally, with SiC MOSFETs, you benefit from a more compact product size because all components (inductors, filters, etc.) are smaller.
This guide provides a comprehensive system-level solutions for automotive OBCs, addressing the evolving market shift toward higher power levels and higher battery voltages.
Design accurate, efficient current‑sense solutions with ease. Quickly model errors, refine shunt and amplifier choices, and visualize performance to build smarter, more reliable power systems.
Design Resources
Tools and resources for your evaluation process.
Utilize our PRT+ tool to identify the ideal product for you.
Explore tailored components and insights for your application.
Buy and validate the performance of chosen components.
Formation can take 10–20 hours or more per cell and must be performed on every unit with tight current and voltage accuracy. As battery demand scales, this slow, energy‑intensive step limits factory throughput and accounts for a significant share of equipment cost and floor space, especially in high‑volume EV and energy storage manufacturing.
Battery formation equipment functions as a large, multi‑channel switched‑mode power supply platform. Power electronics enable ultra‑precise current and voltage control, high parallelism across thousands of channels, and efficient handling of both charge and discharge energy, which is essential for accuracy, scalability, and energy efficiency in modern formation lines.
Bidirectional architectures recover energy during cell discharge and reuse it within the system or feed it back to the grid. Instead of dissipating discharge energy as heat, regenerative designs dramatically improve system efficiency, reduce cooling requirements, and lower operating costs, enabling round‑the‑clock operation with much higher overall energy utilization.
Wide‑bandgap devices such as SiC and GaN enable higher switching frequencies, lower losses, and higher operating temperatures. This translates into higher power density, improved efficiency, smaller passive components, and reduced cooling requirements, all of which are critical for compact, scalable, and energy‑efficient formation systems.
A typical system includes an AC‑DC front end with power factor correction, an isolated high‑power DC‑DC stage, and multiple low‑voltage bidirectional DC‑DC output channels. Together, these stages enable efficient grid interfacing, galvanic isolation, precise cell‑level control, and energy recovery during discharge.
Worth Your Time
Discover curated articles brimming with innovative insights and industry trends.
Related Videos
Let's keep going – watch these videos for deeper dives and fresh perspectives.
Support and Community
If you're interested to learn about any onsemi technology, search for related articles in Help library.
