This paper describes the design concept and characteristics of a power supply for optical network units in Fiber To The Home (FTTH) systems. Powering architectures of local powering, network powering and power hub powering are compared in terms of cost and maintainability. A local powering architecture is selected for an ONU power supply because it is the most cost-effective overall compared with the others. The local power supply is mainly composed of a rectifier, DC-DC converters, a ringer, and batteries. A battery deterioration test function is important for the local power supply because battery lifetime varies depending on ambient temperature, discharge history, and charging conditions, and it is shorter than other electrical components used in ONU. Supplying power using alternative batteries is also necessary because the capacity of batteries installed in the power supply is limited. These functions and electrical characteristics are checked using an experimental power supply with Ni-Cd batteries.

The power system and the battery management of mobile phones used by NTT DoCoMo subscribers will be described. The energy requirements of the phones' AC-adaptors (chargers), their power-management systems, and trends in energy consumption will be focused on. The results of the new Li-ion batteries' safety tests, quick tests assessing battery capacity deterioration, and battery lifetime predictions will be also discussed.

We have developed a quick battery checker the Li-ion battery packs used in mobile phones. It checks for capacity deterioration by using an impedance-measuring method. Our previous measurements of the capacity and impedance at 1 kHz for various battery packs proved conclusively that there is a strong correlation between degraded capacity and impedance. The battery checker's design took into account the results we obtained from measuring impedances. We showed that the battery checker is highly accurate and fast.