TI fast-charge technology gets more life out of a Li-Ion battery

Mobile phone users are frustrated when their batteries’ charge doesn’t last as long after months of daily charging and discharging. TI’s MaxLife technology leverages an innovative degradation modeling system to minimize charge time while extending battery service life – as much as 30 percent according to lab tests. Based on TI’s popular Impedance Track battery capacity measurement technology, the MaxLife algorithm accurately predicts and avoids charge conditions that could degrade the battery.

Autonomous battery management
Traditional software-controlled battery management systems – whether implemented with a microcontroller, PMIC or digital signal processor – are limited in their ability to predict accurate battery capacity and translate that information into run time. The new bq27530 and bq24160 chipset for 2.5-A charge rates and the bq27531 and bq24192 chipset for 4.5-A charge rates give designers greater flexibility by having the gauge control the charger directly. This autonomous battery management system reduces software overhead, improves battery safety and security, provides better thermal management and allows a designer to adapt the charging algorithm to support different platforms and newer higher capacity batteries.

Development kit gets you started
A new Li-Ion fast-charge development kit is available, which features the bq27531 fuel gauge directly communicating with the bq24192 charger via an I2C interface. Input operating range for the evaluation kit is 4.2 V to10 V.

Key benefits of the MaxLife technology:
• Faster charging at up to 4.5-A rates for single-cell lithium batteries.
• Extended battery service life with minimum degradation of run-time after each discharge cycle.
• High-efficiency charging with enhanced thermal management and reduced heat generation.
• High-performance Impedance Track™ monitoring system provides the most accurate capacity estimation and precise control of charging current and termination thresholds.

Availability and pricing
The bq27530 and bq27531 battery fuel gauges with charger control are available now in a 2-mm by 1-mm by 0.65-mm, 15-pin wafer chipscale (WCSP) package, and are priced at US$2.07 in 1,000-unit quantities. The bq24192 4.5-A battery charger comes in a 24-pin, 4-mm by 4-mm QFN package and is priced at US$2.50 in quantities of 1,000. The bq24160 dual-input 2.5-A charger comes in a 24-pin QFN package and a 2.8-mm by 2.8-mm, 49-ball WCSP package, and is priced at US$2.50 in 1,000-unit quantities.