TI claims first fully-integrated Li-Ion battery IC

According to TI, the bq33100 provides comprehensive features for managing charge control; measuring capacitance and effective series resistance (ESR); and protecting either 2-, 3-, 4- or 5-series super capacitors with individual capacitor control, or up to 9-series capacitors with stack control.

The make-up of the integrated capacitor maximizes functionality and safety, while dramatically increasing ease of use and cutting the solution cost and size for super capacitor applications, TI said.

The product is designed for battery-backed write cache applications, system bridge power and non-volatile dual in-line memory RAID controller cards.

TI added that the integrated capacitor prevents surprise battery pack failures by measuring pack health conditions and communicates dynamic charge voltage with the charger to extend battery pack life. It also prevents damage to capacitors caused by over voltage or over temperature stress during charging and measures and maintains accurate record of available capacitance.

Further, the single device has integrated and programmable protection configures safety parameters to battery pack and system needs and uses I²C and SMBus communications which are widely used communication protocols that match many host processor capabilities.

The bq33103 super capacitor manager is available in a 7.8mm x 6.4mm TSSOP package, priced at $4.65 in quantities of 1,000.