Li-ion battery fuel gauge

6 February 2013 Power Electronics / Power Management

Maxim is sampling what it touts as the industry’s simplest low-power fuel gauge for Lithium-ion (Li+) batteries.

Operating at only 23 μA, Maxim claims the MAX17048 uses 4x less power than competitive devices and even less in micropower hibernate mode, in which the fuel gauge continues to operate. As it needs only one external capacitor, it simplifies design, shrinks solution size and reduces costs.

The device is ideal for portable battery-powered applications such as smartphones, wireless handsets and mobile accessories, including Bluetooth headsets, portable speakers, fitness devices and Wi-Fi routers.

The fuel gauge automatically detects when the battery enters a low-current state and switches into a low-power 4 μA hibernate mode, while still providing accurate fuel gauging. The IC automatically exits hibernate mode when the system returns to active state.

As opposed to most fuel gauges which use coulomb counting, which can drift and affect the accuracy of the gauge over time, the MAX17048 features Maxim’s ModelGauge algorithm and does not require coulomb counting to report accurate battery state-of-charge, thus extending runtime. The IC’s functionality is also integrated into the company’s TINI Power system-on-chip (SoC) to make it easier to upgrade designs to more complex systems.

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