Smallest, lowest power battery management extends lifetime of wearables
Claimed to deliver the industry’s lowest quiescent current, 700nA, and a buck converter, operating at 1.8V, the bq25120 is an integrated battery management IC from Texas Instruments.
It has a linear charger, configurable LDO, load switch, buck converter, pushbutton control and battery voltage monitor in one device. It supports batteries from 3.6 to 4.65V, and fast charge currents from 5.0 to 300mA, allowing wearables and industrial IoT applications to always be on without draining the battery.
It maintains an always-on 1.8V operation using power path technology and a low quiescent current buck converter. A host microprocessor or Bluetooth radio is able to continue running during recharging by not extracting “empty energy.” The company claims that designers can achieve the longest battery shelf life with a standby mode quiescent current of 50nA.
A configurable load switch/LDO output optimises the system by shutting off rarely used functions such as radios and displays to minimise battery drain. An integrated battery voltage monitor enables a state of charge indicator, buck converter and pushbutton control features.
The 2.5 x 2.5mm WCSP enables it to be integrated into wearable designs. For a more robust solution, the company recomments incorporating the CC2640 wireless MCU as it is the industry’s smallest QFN package solution with integrated Flash for Bluetooth Smart.
Accurate charge termination down to 500µA maximises the energy delivered to the battery before completing the charging cycle, allowing batteries to draw a more robust full charge.
The I²C programming interface allows designers to set key parameters including battery charger voltage, current, termination threshold, input current limit, load switch control, flexible timer and reset options, says the company.
The charger is shipping now and an evaluation modulation is available.
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