Nordic Semiconductors has introduced the nPM1304 power management IC (PMIC), a highly integrated, ultra-low-power solution for space-constrained applications with small rechargeable batteries. The PMIC can be used in smart rings, sports performance trackers, personal health-care monitoring devices, and other small-size battery applications.
(Source: Nordic Semiconductor)
Claiming the industry’s first ultra-low-power precision fuel gauging for applications that use small batteries, the nPM1304 PMIC delivers accurate fuel gauging by way of a unique algorithm-based fuel gauge method that combines voltage, current, and temperature monitoring, together with a mathematical battery model, to estimate battery charge status. The results are comparable to dedicated fuel gauge devices such as coulomb counters, without additional power consumption and inherent error accumulation.
The solution, using 8 µA active and zero current in sleep, provides accurate state-of-charge estimates and no discernable shortening of battery life. This is in comparison to a dedicated fuel gauge device that can use as much as 50 µA when the product is active and 7 µA in sleep, according to Nordic.
The nPM1304 charges single-cell lithium-ion (Li-ion), Li-polymer, and LiFePO4 batteries with a linear charging module supporting 4 to 100 mA charge current and programmability from 3.5-V to 4.65-V termination voltage. The battery charger supports automatic thermal regulation with programmable maximum chip temperature during charging.
Providing accurate remaining battery life estimation with ultra-low power consumption, the nPM1304 manages the power supply for Nordic’s ultra-low-power nRF52, nRF53, and nRF54 Series wireless system-on-chips (SoCs) and microcontrollers. (Nordic’s high-end nRF52840 SoC was an Electronic Products 2018 Product of the Year Award winner.)
The nPM1304 provides the same system features as the Nordic nPM1300 PMIC. In addition to the battery charging and fuel gauging, the PMIC includes two ultra-efficient buck converters, two load switches/low-drop-out voltage converters (LDOs), five GPIOs, and three LED drivers.
The nPM1304 is configurable using an I2C-compatible two-wire interface. The interface provides easy access to configure advanced system management functions such as a two-button hard reset, battery fuel gauging, system-level watchdog, power loss warning, and failed-boot recovery. By combining the circuitry that typically requires several discrete components into a single chip, it simplifies design and reduces the bill of materials.
Nordic is currently offering an early sampling program.
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