35V/3.2A Battery Step-Down Battery Charger with PowerPath and I2C Telemetry. by Zachary Pantely @ analog.com
The first step to designing a battery charger is choosing a battery charger IC from the vast field of available solutions. To make an informed decision, a design team must first clearly define the battery parameters (chemistry, cell count, etc.) and the input parameters (solar, USB, etc.). The team must then search for chargers that fit the input and output parameters, comparing numerous data sheets to settle on the best solution. The selection process should allow the team to pick the best solution for the application, until of course, the design parameters change, at which point: back to the data sheets.
What if this step could be skipped altogether? What if a designer could focus on an application solution, treating the battery charger IC as a black box to be filled in with a real IC when the time comes to produce a working solution? At that time, the designer simply reaches to the shelf for a generic battery charger IC, regardless of the essential design parameters. Even if application parameters change (inputs switched out, battery type changed, etc.) the off-the-shelf battery charger IC still fits. No additional data sheet search required.
LTC4162 Charges batteries from Solar Cells using MPPT – [Link]
Hello Mike,
I just saw your post from the LT charger, and currently I’m designing my power managing with this Integrated.
I have some questions:
My project has 2 types of inputs, 5V or 12V, with 1Cell li-ion battery, and I want to know if I feed the system with 12 V (VIN), the output voltage is 12V too?
If the input is a Solar panel the load changes to the battery, so the voltage here is the voltage battery?
Thanks in advance,
Sergio
What would you like to achieve with charger IC? Have a 12V solar panel on the input and charge 1 cell Li-ion battery? In this case the output will be regulated to lower voltage to charge the battery from the 12V solar panel input and the MPPT will take care of maximum power extraction from the panel.