TI Unveils Smart Battery System Compliant Gas Gauge IC for Portable Equipment Powered By Li-Ion/Li-Polymer Battery Packs-IC Simplifies Design of Battery Capacity Monitoring and Safety Control Circuits in Notebook PCs, Handheld Terminals, Medical and Test Equipment
PR NEWSWIRE, 7/30/2001 9:21:00 AM
DALLAS, Jul 30, 2001 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- A Smart Battery System (SBS) compliant gas gauge IC from Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) (TI) for Li-Ion or Li-Polymer battery packs simplifies the design of battery capacity monitoring and safety control circuits. Designed for battery pack integration, the device monitors and reports critical battery parameters, controls the battery's charging profile, and provides battery alarm warnings and safety control signals. The device supports version 1.1 of the SBS Smart Battery Data (SBD) set and reports data, such as remaining capacity in milliamp hours (mAh) or milliwatt hours (mWh), instantaneous charge or discharge current, temperature, and voltage. The portable system uses the data to effectively manage battery power and extend system operating time as much as possible. The new device is ideal for use in notebook computers, handheld terminals, medical and test equipment, and other portable equipment powered by three or four series Li-Ion or Li-Polymer battery packs. (See power.ti.com/aap6543u ).
The bq2063 directly interfaces with the Seiko S-8243 Battery Protection IC to simplify the design of safety and SBS compliant electronics in a Li-Ion or Li-Polymer battery pack. In addition to safety protection, the S-8243 provides voltage regulation and individual cell voltage inputs to the bq2063, reducing the number of external components required for circuit operation by as much as 40 percent versus previous generations or competitive solutions. Using the bq2063, a complete circuit, including Li-Ion safety protection and SBS compliant battery fuel gauging, can fit on less than 1 square inch of PCB space.
While a bq2063 solution provides a unique degree of integration, it also offers a high level of performance to meet the requirements for accurate battery fuel gauging with the advanced battery chemistries used in today's low power portable systems. To accurately gauge remaining battery capacity and predict remaining system run times, the bq2063 employs a highly accurate voltage-to-frequency (VFC) converter for continuous charge and discharge integration. The VFC has a measurement offset error of less than 16microV, ensuring accurate charge and discharge counting of operating and ultra-low standby currents using a small value sense resistor (<20mohms). Additionally, for enhanced accuracy, the bq2063 features programmable cell modeling, which adjusts the gauge's capacity calculations for cell-specific characteristics, such as self-discharge rates and charge and discharge efficiencies based on rate and temperature variations.
The bq2063 consumes less than 180 micro amps (typical) of current in operating mode and less than 5 micro amps (typical) in sleep mode. To communicate battery data to the host system, the bq2063 supports version 1.1 of the two-wire SBS System Management Bus (SMBus) and the one-wire 16-bit TI HDQ communication protocol.
Other features of the bq2063 include:
-- 4 or 5 segment LED display for remaining capacity push-button
indication
-- Packet Error Checking (PEC) on the SMBus for communication error
detection
-- Optional internal thermistor for temperature measurement with reduced
component count
-- Separate safety output for added level of safety
-- 15-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for accurate measurement of
voltage, temperature, and instantaneous current
Availability
Samples of the bq2063 will be available from TI and its authorized distributors in August with full production scheduled for September 2001. The bq2063 is packaged in a 28-pin SSOP. The suggested resale price is $3.85 in quantities of 1,000.
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