A selection criterion for lithium-ion cell equalisers based on a comprehensive catalogue of existing architectures

This study proposes a selection criterion for the optimal choice of lithium-ion cell equalisers. To support this selection, a systematic catalogue of existing cell-equaliser circuits was developed, providing a unified description of their operating principles and component requirements. A comprehensive multimedia file hosted in the Journal supplementary material and a concise summary table in the paper accompany this catalogue. This collection forms the foundation for a subsequent methodological analysis, in which a circuit selection framework is introduced. The selection criterion is based on five key performance indicators (KPIs) based on: cost, weight, occupied area, equalising efficiency, and equalisation time. Unlike previous approaches reported in the literature, the proposed method can be easily extended to include additional KPIs, enabling the automatic identification of the most suitable cell-equaliser circuit for a given application sector. A case study involving forty-four different equalisers identified through a comprehensive literature review demonstrates the applicability and robustness of the proposed KPIs across three representative sectors: aeronautical, marine, and automotive. • Cell balancing is a critical function in high-energy battery pack design. • More than 49 distinct equalizer circuits can be considered for implementation. • Each architecture offers advantages in cost, size, weight, efficiency, and dynamic. • KPIs are introduced to compare architectures and identify the most suitable.