Nordic announces highly integrated PMIC
Nordic Semiconductor has announced the new nPM1304 Power Management IC (PMIC). Building on the success formula of the well-established nPM1300, the nPM1304 offers a solution for space-constrained applications that require small batteries.
The nPM1304 PMIC brings system management features and accurate fuel gauging for low-power and size-constrained applications. Nordic’s algorithm-based fuel gauge method uses voltage, current, and temperature monitoring, together with a mathematical battery model, to estimate battery state of charge. This method yields an accuracy comparable to that of dedicated fuel gauge devices such as coulomb counters, but without the additional power consumption and inherent error accumulation.
Nordic claims to be is the first company to deliver the fuel gauge precision expected by today’s product users at a power consumption conducive to small battery energy budgets.
A dedicated fuel gauge device can use as much as 50µA when the product is active and 7µA in sleep. For a product with e.g. a 200µA average current consumption, the traditional fuel gauging represents an unsustainable share of the total energy budget. With Nordic’s solution using 8µA active and zero current in sleep, it provides accurate state-of-charge estimates with no noticeable shortening of battery life.
The nPM1304 charges single-cell Li-ion, Li-poly, and LiFePO4 batteries with a linear charging module that supports from 4 to 100 mA charge current and programmable from 3.5 to 4.65 V termination voltage. The battery charger features automatic thermal regulation with programmable maximum chip temperature during charging.
The nPM1304 is suitable for all end products with small rechargeable batteries, including smart rings, sports performance trackers, and personal health care monitoring devices.
“The demand for compact, connected sensor devices is growing rapidly,” said Geir Kjosavik, product director, PMICs at Nordic Semiconductor. “Our customers in consumer and healthcare are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in small form factors. With the nPM1304, we’re giving them a breakthrough solution—accurate remaining battery life estimation with ultra-low power consumption—something the market has been waiting for.”
The nPM1304 includes the same system features as the nPM1300 PMIC. In addition to battery charging and fuel gauging, it includes two ultra-efficient buck converters, two load switches/Low Drop Out voltage converters (LDOs), 5 GPIOs, and 3 LED drivers. It also features an I2C-compatible Two Wire Interface (TWI) for easy access to configure a range of advanced system management functions, including integrated hard reset functionality from one or two buttons, accurate battery fuel gauging, system-level watchdog, power loss warning, and recovery from failed boot. It reduces an end-product’s Bill-of-Materials (BoM) by combining circuitry that typically requires five or more discrete components into a single chip.
