Enabling smaller portable equipment, Texas Instruments (TI) announced today the bqTINYTM family of smallest available charge management solutions for single-cell lithium-ion (Li-Ion) and lithium-polymer (Li-Pol) battery packs. Featuring a package 40 percent smaller than the nearest competitive product, the new highly integrated devices save space and manufacturing costs in space-limited portable applications. On-chip features simplify design, reduce component counts and support higher charge currents for faster charge times. (See www.power.ti.com/sc02089). The bqTINY series is made up of highly integrated Li-Ion and Li-Pol linear charge management devices targeted at spaced-limited portable applications. The series offers integrated 1-Amp powerFET and current sensor, reverse blocking diode, high accuracy current and voltage regulation, charge status, and charge termination, all in a small 3mm x 3mm micro-leadframe package (MLP). Continuing the development of advanced charge management begun with TI's earlier generations of charge management ICs, the bqTINY series achieves an even higher level of integration to save space and simplify design. Among the applications that can benefit from the new devices are personal digital assistants (PDAs), smart phones, MP3 audio players, wireless headsets, Internet appliances, digital still cameras, global positioning systems and handheld digital instruments. "The new bqTINY devices demonstrate TI's commitment to driving the level of integration higher and package size lower in battery management ICs," said Bill Chew, marketing manager, TI Portable Power Management Products. "TI customers can design smaller charge management circuits, making space-limited applications even smaller and lighter-weight for end users." Advanced features, such as an innovative 3mm x 3mm MLP that offers excellent thermal characteristics, make the bqTINY ICs well suited for managing Li-Ion and Li-Pol battery chargers. With its outstanding thermal performance, the package enables charge currents of up to 1A for faster recharge of battery packs. To support high-current charging, the devices integrate a 1A power MOSFET. An integrated current sensor with a programmable current set-point input provides design flexibility and eliminates the need for bulky external sense resistors, and an integrated reverse-blocking protection scheme prevents battery drainage in the absence of the DC supply. Other integrated features include voltage and current regulation, safety timers for pre-charge and fast charge phases, charge status outputs to LEDs or a microcontroller, and charge termination. With the high level of integration in the bqTINY ICs, only two external capacitors and one resistor are needed in a minimum configuration to provide a complete battery charger circuit. The bqTINY charge management ICs employ the sophisticated three-phase charging algorithm required by battery cell manufacturers. Featuring pre-charge conditioning, constant current and highly accurate constant voltage phases, the algorithm reduces charge times, maximizes the total charge and protects the battery from a variety of thermal and electrical dangers. An automatic sleep mode reduces drainage on the battery when the input supply is removed. In addition to the standard features, different versions of the bqTINY series offer a variety of extra features, including temperature sensing input for detecting hot or cold battery packs; Power Good indicator capability detecting the presence of the AC adapter; a TTL-level charge enable input used to disable or enable the charge process; and a TTL-level timer and termination enable input used to disable or enable the fast-charge timer and charge termination. Samples of the bqTINY ICs are available now, with volume production planned for the third quarter of 2002. All bqTINY devices are packaged in a 10-lead 3mm x 3mm MLP.

Press Release