In todays world where battery operated devices have become essential parts of our daily life,

the burden of charging these devices is getting more attention than ever. The main challenge
here is how can you ease the burden of waiting time until your device is full of juice.

This blog will highlight the current trends in fast charging and the essential role precise constant
current (CC) regulation plays to help enable fast, safe, and cost effective solutions to charge
devices faster.

Batteries generally go through two phases while charging; constant current (CC) and constant
voltage (CV). Figure 1 shows the typical charging curve for a 4.2V Li-Ion battery. CC is used
roughly for the first 67% of charge in which most of the energy is transferred from the charger
to the battery. CV phase kicks in the last 33% of the remaining charging time to help charge
battery fully and maintain the full charge. Some chargers usually keep pumping small currents
(also called trickle charging) during CV to account for discharging currents and keep the battery
voltage fully charged. The time it takes the battery to fully charge, depends on the battery
capacity and the battery maximum allowable charging current which is a function mainly of the
battery chemistry and ambient temperature. For example, if you have a Lithium Ion battery
with capacity of 3000mAh and charge rate of 0.8C (Where C refers to the current needed to
charge the battery in 1 hour), which is the default rate battery manufacturer recommend to
prolong battery life, the battery will need 2 3 hours to fully charge.

Figure 1: Typical Li-Ion Battery Charging Curve

The previous describes a typical charging scenario where the charging rate is considered normal
with limited hand shaking. Various methods were introduced recently to maximize the charging
time by pushing more energy to the battery during CC phase. These methods use either
proprietary charging algorithms or follow one of the mainstream standards like the newly
introduced USB-PD Programmable Power Supplies (PPS) standard. Both the wall charger and
the device perform continuous handshaking to intelligently communicate the battery needs and
maximize the charging efficiency. The two main methods that are used are: High voltage and
low current (legacy method) and high current and low voltage (new mainstream trend). The
first makes use of the existing charging cable by limiting the current to about 2A while
increasing the voltage levels to up to 15V. The issue with this method is the high heat
dissipation due to the needed voltage conversion stage at the device side that decreases
battery life and decreases the maximum allowable energy that can be transferred to the
battery. The second method basically uses a voltage close to the battery voltage and a higher
current that can flow to the battery directly. This method is referred to usually as direct or flash
charging. This method enables higher charging rates at cooler temperatures since there is not
voltage conversion at the device side. However, this method requires special charging cables to
allow higher currents to flow. The idea here is to try to charge the battery at a rate as close as
possible to the maximum allowable rate to minimize the charging time.

Due to the cooler temperature profile of flash charging, it is becoming more and more
predominant with most of the existing standards merging to using it to enable fast charging.
Figure 2 shows a typical high level block diagram of a flash charging system.
Adapter Device

AC Chargers
Suppl y 5m
(Regular,
Transfor
Rectifier Flash,
mer
Wireless, etc..)

1m
Controller

Battery

Gauge
Inner-loop
current
control

MCU Handshak ing

MCU

Figure 2: High level block diagram of flash charging solution

As can be seen from figure 2, a precise current control loop is needed to enable faster charging
time, and add an extra layer of protection on top of what is already used in other blocks like
battery chargers and fuel gauges. Although current sensing function can be integrated, the level
of accuracy that dedicated current sensing solutions can provide using small shunt resistances
to minimize heat dissipation and ability to monitor the current in the high side is hard to match.
TI offers a wide variety of dedicated current sensors that fits well in this application. These
solutions include the INA210 family which offers great accuracy across a wide dynamic range,
the INA199 that has a great combination of accuracy and cost, and the new INA181 family that
offers the best value in terms of bandwidth, accuracy, and price. The INA181 is best suited for
this application mainly due to its wide 350kHz bandwidth that enables the detection of the fast
ripples of the charging current signal. This info is needed to maximize the charging current by
minimizing the guard band needed. Figure 3 shows a typical flash charging signal as seen from
the output of the wall charger.

Figure 3: Flash charging current profile example

To sum it all together, the main limitation of fast charging methods today is the heat dissipation
close to the battery that limits the maximum allowable energy transfer and thus minimizing the
charging time. Also, high temperatures have safety and battery life degradation concerns. Flash
charging is a promising method because it allows high level of energy transfer at relatively
cooler temperature that maximizes the charging efficiency and minimizing the charging time.
To enable this high efficiency, precise current control loop is needed. This is best achieved by
dedicated current sensors. The INA181 family is a great fit because it provides a great
combination of performance, price, and bandwidth.

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Additional resources
Learn more about TIs portfolio of current-sense amplifiers.
Get started with the Current Sense Amplifiers video training series.
Read these TI TechNotes:
o Current Mode Control in Switching Power Supplies
o External Current Sense Amplifiers vs. Integrated OnBoard Amplifiers For Current Sensing