Low-complexity SPICE Analog Behavioral
Modeling of the ideal battery for system level design
Ariel Jimenez, Natalia Morales, Carlos Páez, Arturo Fajardo, and Gabriel Perilla
Department of Electronics Engineering
Pontificia Universiad Javeriana, Bogota, Colombia
jimenezariel, nataliamorales, paez.carlos, fajardoa, gabriel.perilla @javeriana.edu.co
Abstract—This paper presents the implementation of an ideal
battery model using Pspice behavioral-dependent sources, which
considering cycle life and rate of discharge effects. The proposed
circuit topology models the battery behaviors (e.g., runtime)
with low complexity to design portable electronic devices at a
system level. The proposed model was simulated in OrCAD
PSpice Designer® software using three study cases assuming three
battery technologies (i.e., ideal Battery, Li-Ion, Lead-Acid) with
constant and pulse (with duty cycle 50%) discharge current under
five different discharge average values (i.e., 1C, 2C, 3C, 4C, and
5C). The runtime results present a good agreement between the
simulated and theoretical values, with a mean absolute percentage
error of 0.554%.
Keywords—Battery modeling, ideal Battery, Energy Power Sup-
ply.
I. I NTRODUCTION
The high energy density of the current battery technologies
has allowed the development of Portable Electronic Devices
(PED) [1]. One of the PED design goal is to determine the
battery storage capacity required to guarantee the expected
battery life (runtime) specification under nominal operation
[2]. Therefore, the PED designers optimize the runtime and the
circuit performance using battery models [3]. At a system-level
design, the designer uses low-complexity battery models to
reduce the simulation time [4]. There are three types of battery
models [5], [6]: physical, analytical, and circuit-based. The last
one has low complexity, and it can be easily implemented in
circuit simulators [7]. Further, it is more intuitive and easy to
handle for the electronic design [8].
The Combined Electrical Circuit-Based Model (CECBM)
captures the battery runtime and the DC voltage response, and
some nonlinear behaviors of batteries [6]. This model is based
on two separate circuits interconnected by nonlinear controlled
sources, as shown in Fig. 1. This topology captures the
limited storage-charge-capacity and the non-ideal characteristic
of the loaded batteries (e.g., internal loss resistance, transitory
responses) through the energy storage circuit and the output
circuit, respectively [7]. Recently, in [3], the authors propose an
ideal battery model based on the Energy Power Supply (EPS)
concept and the energy flow modeling of the CECBM model,
this source imposes a constant DC value to its load as long as
it has stored charge. This model is accurate enough to check
the correct battery dimensioning of a PED at a system-level
design, by the simulation of the device runtime. Further, its
implementation is easy with in-line equations. However, few
SPICE-based simulators have this feature [9]. Therefore, the
is
Energy f(SoC) Voltage
storage SoC vs response RL
circuit g(is) circuit
Fig. 1. Circuit Topology of the CECBM battery model.
designer could implement the ideal battery model using the
analog behavioral modeling approach [9].
In general, the designer follows at least the following
steps to dimension the PED battery [10], [11]: 1) Estimate
the average current consumption (IL ) of the battery load.
2) Estimate the PED runtime. 3) Calculate the minimum
charge storage capacity (Qn ), which is typically in [mAh]. 4)
Apply simple cycle life considerations (i.e., avoiding extreme
battery charge or discharge) to estimate Qn . 5) Correct the
Qn estimation by the Peukert coefficient using the IL and the
rated discharge current of the battery (In ). Finally, the overall
system is simulated to check the design goals at the system
level as the runtime using low complexity models. After this
first stage of the PED design, the circuit and component design
level stars, at this level the designer requires more accurate and
complex battery models [12].
This paper reports a PSPICE implementation of an ideal
battery model. Further, this implementation adds simple cycle
life considerations and Peukert coefficient to the original
model proposed in [3]. The proposed simulation model is
implemented in OrCAD PSpice Designer® using the integrated
Analog Behavioral Model (ABM) library and conventional
circuits components. In the proposed implementation, the
designer can correct the nominal battery capacity using the
Peukert coefficient and the percentage of the expected charge-
discharge cycle (i.e., 80% means that the load will maintain the
state of charge between 10% and 90% to increase the battery
lifetime). Further, the model implementation was evaluated
with DC and pulsed current loads of 1C, 2C, 3C, 4C, and
5C, assuming Li-ion and lead-acid batteries. The runtime
result presents a good agreement between the simulated and
theoretical values.The rest of the article is divided as follows.
Section II presents the model of the ideal battery. In sections
III and IV, it was reported the ABM implementation and
validation of this model, respectively. Finally, in section V
and VI, the conclusions and the future work are presented.
 II. I DEAL BATTERY M ODEL is
The EPS energy (Es ) is supplied by the combination of
current (is ) and voltage (vs ) with an energy rate (Ps ) given by 1V SoC is vs
dEs (t) C=Qn
Ps (t) = = vs (t) is (t) (1)
dt
An ideal EPS must deliver infinite energy at a required load Fig. 2. Ideal battery model
power, in a small form factor [3]. In contrast, a real EPS
delivers limited energy at a limited power with a specific form Energy storage circuit ABM of the
factor [3]. For example, a battery can supply the power demand energy flow
SoC vo=vi
only for a limited time, know as runtime. This time is related to x f(x) vi
Qn . Consequently, the PED designer could decrease the power
load demand (i.e., fewer functionalities of the PED) or increase SoC
Rsp
the battery Qn (i.e., less portability of the PED) to increase the 1V ii
Ce vs is
PED runtime. The relative level of the storage battery charge io =ii
(Q) is known as the state of charge (SoC = Q/Qn ), which is
used to describe the remaining storage energy in the battery
[13]. (a) Conceptual Model
PARAMETERS: IF((V(%IN+, %IN-))>0,V,0)
An ideal battery imposes a constant DC voltage value (V ) Rs EVALUE v
k1 o=vi
IN+ OUT+
in its terminals as long as it has stored charge (i.e., Q > 0). k2
OUT-
vi
Qn IN-
vs
Ce ={Qn*3600*k1*k2}
The estimation of the remaining stored charge is carrying by
the integration of the supplied current over time as a capacitor.
This Q estimation is useful only in the range of 0 < Q < Qn Dideal
because of a Q = Qn means a fully charged battery and a SoC ii
1V is
Q = 0 means an empty one. The electric energy flow process Dideal {Ce} {Rs} io=ii vs
in an ideal battery could be described by the circuit shown in
Fig. 1 without voltage response circuit, and with the following (b) Orcad Pspice designer schematic
non-linear functions
 Fig. 3. ABM implementation of the ideal battery model.
V Qn > Q > 0
fi (Q) = vs = (2)
0 Q=0
gi (is ) = is (3) III. P ROPOSED IMPLEMENTATION OF THE IDEAL BATTERY
MODEL
where, is and vs are the current supplied and the voltage
imposed by the EPS to its load, respectively. The fi and gi The proposed conceptual Pspice-ABM implementation of
are the open voltage and the discharge current of the ideal the ideal battery model is shown in Fig. 3(a), where Ce
battery, respectively. Using the coulomb counting method [14], represents the equivalent charge stored capacity of the battery.
the battery storage charge is given by This model parameter must calculated by the designer as [10],
Zt Zt [11]
Ce = 3600 · Qn · k1 · k2 (7)
Q = Q0 − gi (is )dτ = Q0 − is dτ (4)
0 0 where Qn is given in [Ah], k1 is the percentage of the expected
charge-discharge cycle [10], and k2 is given by [11]
where Q0 is the initial condition of Q. Therefore the state of
 pc−1
charge of the ideal battery could be calculated as In
k2 = (8)
Zt IL
1
SoC = SoC0 − is dτ (5) where, IL is the average current consumption of the battery
Qn
0 load, In is the rated discharge current of the battery and pc
is the Peukert coefficient of the battery technology, which is
where SoC0 is the initial SoC of the energy EPS. Using (5) 1.47 [11] and 1.0328 [15] on average in lead-acid and Li-ion,
the equation (2) can be rewritten as: respectively.

V 1 > SoC > 0 To guarantee the convergence of the transient analysis on
fi (Q) = vs = (6)
0 SoC = 0 Pspice simulators, an additional resistance in parallel with Ce
The resulting CECBM model is shown in Fig. 2, the capacitor is added (i.e., Rs ), which is given by
value of C assumes the role of the Qn . Further, its charge and 1
voltage represent the storage charge and the state of charge of Rs > (9)
min {is }
the ideal battery, respectively. In addition, the ideal diodes and
the DC voltage source of the energy storage circuit capture the where, min {is } is the minimum value of the is that will
total charge (SoC = 1) and empty (SoC = 0) conditions of be simulated. The Rs value could be chosen enough high to
the battery. achieve accuracy but not too high to decrease the simulation
 (a)

(b)

Fig. 4. Orcad Pspice simulations settings

time. The initial voltage condition of the capacitor Ce defines

the initial SoC of the battery in the simulation. If it is set to 1
V or 0 V means that the battery is fully charged or discharged,
respectively. (c)
The ideal conceptual behavioral model was implemented in
Fig. 5. Example of waveforms for ideal-battery model test with constant
the Orcad Pspice designer. Its implementation is shown in Fig discharge current. a) Output battery voltage (vs ). b) State of charge of the
3(b). To implement the Ce and Rc circuit components was battery (SoC). c) Output battery current (is ).
used the models available in the BREAKOUT.OLB library.
The source current sensing was implemented using a current-
controlled current source (CCCS) model, which is available
on ANALOG.OLB library. The Dbreak component of the
BREAKOUT.OLB library was modified to implement an ideal
diode model. The Dbreak parameters were modified from
“.model Dbreak D Is=1e-14 Cjo=.1pF Rs=.1” to “.model
Dideal D Is=1e-14 n=0.001”.
The EVALUE block (of the ABM.OLB library) imple-
mented the mathematical expression defined by the ideal
battery model. This block receives a differential input signal
(a)
and performs the function specified by the user as a differential
output. We implement (6) using a conditional function in this
block, which verifies if the Ce voltage is higher than zero. If
the condition is met, the EVALUE block applies a nominal
voltage of the battery (i.e. 3.7 V for Li-Ion batteries), else
the block imposes an output voltage of zero. The simulation
model was implemented using the PARAM part available on
SPECIAL.OLB library. This approach allows the modification
of the model parameters easily. The curly brackets are needed (b)
in Orcad PSpice Designer® to define the parameter as a global
variable.

IV. S IMULATED R ESULTS

It was considered three battery technologies (i.e., ideal
Battery, Li-Ion, Lead-Acid) with constant and pulse (with duty
cycle 50% at 1 mHz) discharge current under the default Rs
value of 100 MΩ and five different discharge average values
(c)
(1C, 2C, 3C, 4C, and 5C). The Qn and V parameters of
the model were set based on the specifications of common Fig. 6. Example of waveforms for ideal-battery model test with pulse
commercial Li-Ion [16] and Lead-Acid [17] batteries of 1200 discharge current. a) Output battery voltage (vs ). b) State of charge of the
mAh. The values of the constants k1 , k2 and the pc used for battery (SoC). c) Output battery current (is ).
 TABLE II. VALUES OF THE CONSTANT k1 AND k2 .
each simulation were summarized in Table I and Table II. It
was carried out thirty simulations in Orcad Pspice Designer® Ideal Li-Ion Lead-Acid
k1 k2 k1 k2 k1 k2
using transient analysis with the parameters summarized in 1C 1 1 0.8 1 0.8 1
Fig 4. The first fifteen simulations with constant current and 2C 1 1 0.8 0.9775 0.8 0.722
the last ones with pulse currents, the waveforms of these tests 3C 1 1 0.8 0.9646 0.8 0.5967
4C 1 1 0.8 0.9555 0.8 0.5212
are plotted in Fig. 5 and Fig 6. In each one, the runtime was 5C 1 1 0.8 0.9486 0.8 0.4693
measured using the cursor tool of the Pspice simulation output
window, as shown in Fig. 7. The theoretical value of the run TABLE III. RUNTIME RESULTS WITH THE DEFAULT VALUES OF Rs .
time of each simulation test was calculated using
Is Simulation Theoretical Absolut error MAPE Total
Type
[C-rate]* [h] [h] [%] [%] MAPE [%]
Qe Qn · k1 · k2 1C 0.998 1 0.186
Runtime = = (10)
IS 1
RT 2C 0.498 0.500 0.361
T is · dt Ideal 3C 0.331 0.333 0.501 0.421
0 4C 0.248 0.250 0.908
5C 0.198 0.198 0.151
1C 0.799 0.8 0.128
where, the Is is the average value discharge current. 2C 0.389 0.391 0.462
Li-ion 3C 0.255 0.2573 0.831 0.651 0.554
As we expect, the simulated runtime under pulsed and con- 4C 0.190 0.1911 0.739
stant discharge were the same. These results were compared 5C 0.150 0.1518 1.093
1C 0.799 0.800 0.128
with the theoretical runtime ones in Table III. Furthermore, the 2C 0.288 0.289 0.445
Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) was calculated for Lead-Acid 3C 0.158 0.159 0.894 0.590
each battery technology and for the overall study cases (Total 4C 0.103 0.104 1.159
5C 0.075 0.075 0.323
MAPE). The resulting error was always less than 1%, therefore *xĊ = x · 1200 mA. i.e., 1C = 1200 mA
the proposed implementation is suitable for simulation at a
system level.
The impact of the Rs in the model was analyzed through V. C ONCLUSIONS
a parametric sweep of Rs from 10 Ω to 100 MΩ. The total
This paper presents the implementation of an ideal battery
MAPE was calculated for all the study cases (i.e., Ideal, Li-
model using Pspice behavioral-dependent sources, which con-
ion, Lead-Acid, 1C, 2C, 3C, 4C, 5C) and plotted as gray dots
sidering cycle life and rate of discharge effects. The resulting
in Fig. 8. From this results and using fitting tools, the total
model was implemented and tested using three study cases
MAPE could be expressed as a function of the Rs parameter
assuming three battery technologies (i.e., ideal Battery, Li-
by
Ion, Lead-Acid) with constant and pulse (with duty cycle
M AP E = 18.6 · log10 (Rs )−2.821 + 0.5493 (11) 50%) discharge current under five different discharge average
values (i.e., 1C, 2C, 3C, 4C, and 5C). The model parameters
with good adjust between data and the fitting expression, (i.e., were set based on the specifications of common commercial
Root Mean Square Error 0.00052 and an R-square of 1). This Li-Ion and Lead-Acid batteries of 1200 mAh. The runtime
function is plotted as line trace in the Fig.8. The resulting result presents a good agreement between the simulated and
MAPE decrease with the increase of the Rs parameter until theoretical values, with a Mean Absolute Percentage Error
an asymptotic value, which is achieved approximative at 100 of 0.554%. Therefore, the proposed low complexity model is
MΩ. suitable to check the design goals at the system level as the
runtime.

2.5

2
MAPE [%]

1.5

1
Fig. 7. Simulated runtime measurement.

TABLE I. VALUES OF THE P EUKERT COEFFICIENT ( PC ). 0.5

0 5 10 15 20
Ideal Li-Ion Lead-Acid log10(Rs)
pc 1 1.0328 1.47
Fig. 8. Total MAPE vs. Rs sweep.
 VI. F UTURE W ORK
In future work, the proposed model will be upgraded to
predict the exact current voltage response of the battery (i.e.,
nonlinear open-circuit voltage, transient response under AC
loads, the self-discharge loss, and internal resistance). Further,
it will be upgraded with the state of charge tracking with more
accuracy techniques than the Coulomb Counting Method.
[16] PKCELL. Li-polymer battery technology specification. [Online; 21
June 2020]. [Online]. Available: https://cdn-shop.adafruit.com/product-
files/258/C101
[17] M. battery. Sealed lead acid battery 4v 1200 mah specifications. [Online;
21 June 2020]. [Online]. Available: https://www.moricell.com/product-
80/4v-1200mah?language=en

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to the Pontificia Universidad Jave-
riana for the financial support. This research was supported by
the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, in the research project
entitled “Class E Amplifier with Gallium Nitride Transistors
for Wireless Power Transfer Applications”, identified with ID
20066. We thank all the members of the Telecommunications
research group (SISCOM) for fruitful discussions.

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