The huge increase of portable devices during the last 10-15 years has lead to numerous companies seeking (and succeeding) to make significant profits in this market. Many consumer applications are now powered by accumulators, ranging from the omnipresent cellular phones to media players, handheld gaming devices, and navigation systems (that is to name only a few categories). “Portable” means lightweight, low power and of course, battery or accumulator that needs to be charged. Charging an accumulator is not rocket science, but doing it in an energy efficient manner, with tiny circuits that provide provision for many types of batteries and charging modes, represents a design challenge accepted by quite a few semiconductor companies, one of which is Freescale.

1. Introduction

Out of all portable devices, the most numerous are the mobile phones (Figure 1). Most of them feature Li-ion or Li-polymer accumulators and Freescale has a broad range of charger ICs dedicated to supporting all the phases of a complete recharge cycle. Generally speaking the charging of a mobile phone is performed by taking energy from:The purpose of the battery charger IC is to take energy from this wide range of sources and to deliver this energy in a controlled manner to the battery. The controlled manner means that the IC is capable to operate in all the necessary modes of charging a battery for portable device: trickle mode, constant current (CC) mode and constant voltage (CV) mode. As it may be seen from the block diagram of figure 2 (as example the MC3467x battery chargers family from Freescale)

For more detail:

Power Management Solutions: Battery Chargers

About The Author

Ibrar Ayyub

I am an experienced technical writer holding a Master's degree in computer science from BZU Multan, Pakistan University. With a background spanning various industries, particularly in home automation and engineering, I have honed my skills in crafting clear and concise content. Proficient in leveraging infographics and diagrams, I strive to simplify complex concepts for readers. My strength lies in thorough research and presenting information in a structured and logical format.

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