Battery Switching Charger from Fairchild Semiconductor an EPC Top-10 DC-DC Power Products Award Winner

The Top-10 DC-DC Power Product Awards are designed to highlight significant advances in a technology or its application. The awards emphasize innovation and excellent price/performance.
As consumers increasingly rely on portable handheld devices, including smartphones, tablets, and portable media/game players designers need a solution that provides faster charge times for the Li-Ion batteries that power them while at the same time overcoming the thermal issues associated with linear chargers.

The family of Li-Ion switching chargers, from Fairchild Semiconductor addresses these needs with more efficient re-charging, either through a USB port or by means of a 5V AC/DC adaptor. Thermal dissipation is no longer an issue, and the device remains relatively cool while re-charging. The FAN5400 switch-mode chargers are an ideal solution for recharging both single-cell and parallel-cell Li-Ion batteries, out-performing the traditional linear charger while providing a convenient USB On-The-Go (USB-OTG) capability.

Flexible in implementation, the device's charging parameters and operating modes are programmable through an I2C interface, which operates at up to 3.4Mbps.

A maximum charge current of 1.25A ensures fast charging times, and a high charge voltage accuracy (±0.5 percent @25°C) allows for more topping out of the battery, resulting in longer battery life. In addition to the standard thermal and short circuit protections, the FAN5400 family can sustain up to 20V DC on the input, in order to protect against unregulated over-voltage conditions on the USB port.

The FAN5400 switching chargers are also cost-efficient. Integrated with the switch-mode charger is a 5V 300mA boost regulator that uses the same inductor as the charger, thereby reducing external component count. In addition, both the charger and boost circuit switch at 3MHz, minimizing the size and cost of external passive components.

Lowering both the size of components and the overall component count also allows designers to work within the often severe space constraints of today's compact, portable devices. In this regard, the FAN5400 family is available in a 1.96 x 1.87mm, 20-bump, 0.4mm pitch CSP package. Today, it remains the smallest solution on the market that provides both charger and USB-OTG boost functionality.

It's a great honor to receive the EPC Top-10 DC-DC Power Products Award, said Frank Ma, Director of Mobile Sales and Marketing, Asia Pacific. Fairchild is an innovator in the mobile market, combining silicon IP building blocks and system-level expertise to develop solutions like the FAN5400 that enable mobile manufacturers to quickly customize their designs, and meet their end-customer's needs.

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