Dallas Semi battery monitor enables recovery of fully depleted battery

The DS2761 high-precision Li-ion battery monitor from Dallas Semiconductor incorporates precise current, voltage, temperature measurements, nonvolatile data storage, and Li-ion protection circuitry into a 16-pin TSSOP or die-sized flip-chip package.

The chip is suitable for use in the battery packs of handheld devices where remaining capacity estimation, safety monitoring, and battery-specific data storage are needed. It enables the recovery of deeply and even completely discharged battery cells. When a charger is connected to the pack, the IC provides a charge path that can be used to recover the cell by trickle charging the battery up to the point normal charging methods would be allowed.

Using its optional internal 25-milliohm sense resistor, the monitor can measure continuous currents from 6255A to 11.9A. External filtering allows peak currents >11.9A to be integrated in the current-accumulation (fuel-gauging) measurement. Using an external sense resistor of another value, the dynamic range can be easily modified. All measured data is stored in an on-chip EEPROM or SRAM and can be reported to the host through its 1-Wire communication interface.

Typical employed in handheld wireless products such as PDAs, mobile phones and digital still cameras, the DS2761 is quoted from $2.55 in quantities of 1,000.