Power/Alternative Energy

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Power mgmt for single-cell battery system

Posted:20 Apr 2015

The energy source for mobile and wearable electronic devices, such as smartphones, fitness trackers
and headsets, is typically a rechargeable single cell battery based on the widely used and
well-understood lithium-ion or lithium-polymer technology. They offer great power density in small sizes
but need versatile protection against high charges and discharge currents, over- and under-voltage
protection as well as short circuit protection. Otherwise the battery can become defective and cause
serious damage. This article provides a solution for devices powered by a single-cell battery including
battery monitoring.
Overview
Figure 1 shows the block diagram of a fully featured battery power solution. The red lines mark the power
path, so basically everything in context with charging and discharging the battery. All blue lines indicate
signals, which are processed by the microcontroller, which can either be inputs, outputs or bidirectional.

Figure 1: Block diagram.

The circuit can be supplied either by a USB port or another external power source with +5.0V. The power
multiplexer TPS2113A is configured so that it automatically selects the adapter input as the power source
if available. Otherwise the USB source is used to charge the battery. The battery charger IC, the
bq24050, is a linear regulator based device dedicated for single cell charging, especially charging from a
USB power source. It charges a Varta CoinPower CP1654 coin-cell style battery with a nominal voltage of
3.7V and a capacitance of 100mAh. To prevent any damage to the battery, the battery protection device
bq29707 monitors the voltage and current. It disconnects the charger or load, if the safe operation area is
exceeded. The bq27410 fuel gauge implements measurement of the batteries charge status. The system
is controlled and monitored by the MSP430F5510 microcontroller. It offers an integrated USB interface,
which is used as serial-to-USB converter for communication with a computer.
A small GUI shows the voltage and average current parameters and helps the designer during evaluation
of the system. To complete the system, the TLV70033 linear regulator powers the microcontroller and the
TPD4S012 ESD solution protects the USB lines on the charger side.
Functionality
The battery charger bq24050 uses the data lines (D+, D-) of the USB bus to automatically detect if it is
connected to a USB port of a computer or a dedicated USB charger. If pull-down resistors on both lines
are present, it indicates a USB port and sets the maximum charge current to 100mA to make sure not to
overload a low power USB port. If the D+ and D- lines are shorted, a dedicated USB charger adapter is
attached and the maximum charge current is set to a level programmed by a resistor on pin ISET of the
IC. If the required charge current is higher than 100mA, while it is supplied by a USB port, the state of pin
ISET2 needs to be changed to give the current control back to ISET. The microcontroller gets the
information if the circuit is powered by a USB port or an external power source from the status pin of the
power multiplexer TPS2113A. If it is powered from a USB port, the microcontroller toggles pin ISET2 of
the charger IC, to give back the control of the maximum charge current to pin ISET, where the current is
adjustable by jumpers between 15mA and 200mA.
Of course, the USB port has to support those higher currents, otherwise it is limited to 100mA internally.
As the charger is based on a linear regulator, the maximum charging current is the same as the maximum
input current. Two LEDs indicate if a battery is charged or if charging is finished.
Lithium-ion batteries are very sensitive regarding the minimum and maximum voltages as well as the
charge and discharge currents. It has to be assured that the voltage during charging is not too high and
that the battery is disconnected from the load if a certain lower threshold is hit. Very high currents or even
a short of the battery can cause serious problems resulting in burning. Thus, the dedicated battery
protection bq29707 monitors all the critical parameters during operation and disconnects the battery from
the charger or load if the safe operation area is left. The over- and under-voltage thresholds are fixed and
depend on the version of the IC, whereas the maximum current is set by a shunt.

Figure 2: Discharging with 200mA.

Figure 2 shows the discharge cycle of a fully charged battery with a constant current of 200mA. As soon
as the load is attached, the battery voltage drops from 4.1V to about 4.0V. Then, the voltage decreases
slowly to 2.80V within 25 minutes. To prevent an over-discharge of the battery, the battery protection
disconnects the battery from the load once the lower threshold of 2.80V is hit.

Figure 3: Charging with 200mA.

Figure 3 shows the charging cycle of a fully discharged battery with the maximum charging current set to
200mA. The current falls almost linearly during the charging time, because the voltage of the battery
increases, therefore, the voltage difference between the charger (4.20V) and the battery becomes
smaller. After charging is finished, the charger releases the battery and the voltage settles at about 4.1V.
The user of a mobile device usually wants to have an overview of the battery's state-of-charge to estimate
the remaining runtime. The bq27410 fuel gauge is utilised to gather all the information about the battery's
health like average current (charge—discharge), battery voltage and remaining capacitance. Before its
first use, it needs to be calibrated with Texas Instruments "bq Evaluation Software" to give precise
measurement results. During the calibration process the output voltage and load current have to be
measured precisely. These parameters are then stored in the calibration memory of the device to
eliminate any tolerances and the influence of the copper resistance of the printed circuit board.
The MSP430F5510 microcontroller, with an integrated USB interface, shows up as a virtual COM port on
a computer. It reads the data from the fuel gauge via I2C and sends it to a GUI, which shows all the
relevant parameters of the battery for easy evaluation of the battery power system.
 Figure 4: Board photo.

Conclusion
For a safe and reliable operation of a battery-powered device, some precautions for the battery itself have
to be taken. The charging algorithm needs to match the battery's chemistry and protection regarding
overcharge, over-discharge and too high currents is essential. The reference design presented provides
charging, protection and monitoring for a single coin-cell battery to supply mobile devices. For monitoring
and development purposes, the board can be attached to a computer via USB to show the relevant
parameters of the battery on a GUI.
About the author
Matthias Ulmann was born in Ulm, Germany, in 1980. He was awarded a degree in electrical engineering
from the University of Ulm in 2006. After working for several years in the field of motor control and solar
inverters specialised in IGBT-drivers, he joined TI's Analog Academy for a one-year trainee program.
Since 2010 he has worked in the European design services group as a reference design engineer in
Freising, Germany. His design activity includes isolated and non-isolated DC/DC converters for all
application segments.

This article was printed from EE Times-Asia located at::

http://www.eetindia.co.in/ART_8800711675_1800008_TA_678c14a1.HTM

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