TI's fully integrated super capacitor manager optimizes battery performance, lifetime and safety

DALLAS, USA: Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) introduced the industry's first fully integrated Li-Ion battery management integrated circuit (IC) for super capacitor charge control. This single device 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 bq33100 maximizes functionality and safety, while dramatically increasing ease of use and cutting the solution cost and size for super capacitor applications. Battery-backed write cache applications, system bridge power and non-volatile dual in-line memory RAID controller cards need reliable super capacitor pack managers to ensure availability when the primary power fails.

Key features and benefits
* Prevents surprise battery pack failures by measuring pack health conditions.
* Communicates dynamic charge voltage with the charger to extend battery pack life.
* Prevents damage to capacitors caused by over voltage or over temperature stress during charging.
* Measures and maintains accurate record of available capacitance.
* Single device manages multiple capacitor configurations: 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-series super capacitor packs.
* Integrated and programmable protection configures safety parameters to battery pack and system needs.
* I2C and SMBus communications are widely used communication protocols that match many host processor capabilities.

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