Battery Manager Supervises Power Tools And E-bikes

Providing pack protection and cell-balancing in four- to 10-cell lithium battery packs, the bq77910 embarks as the industry’s first fully integrated battery protection and cell-balancing solution for Li-Ion and lithium iron phosphate battery packs. The device hopes to simplify battery pack designs for e-bikes, e-scooters, portable gardening tools, power tools, and uninterruptible power supplies. It protects the battery pack by monitoring individual cell voltages and drives two N-channel power MOSFETs to interrupt current flow during fault conditions. Fault detection and recovery criteria for the device are fully programmable in non-volatile memory to suit all types of lithium battery systems. Available in a 38-pin TSSOP package, price is $2.70 each/1,000. TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INC., Dallas, TX. (800) 477-8924.