Battery management and protection device suits electric bikes, scooters, power tools

Texas Instruments Inc. announces a fully integrated battery protection and cell-balancing product for Li-Ion and lithium iron phosphate battery packs. The bq77910 battery management and protection device manages 4 to 10-cell battery packs, and two devices can be stacked to protect 11 to 20-cell packs. The new device streamlines battery pack designs for e-bikes, e-scooters, portable gardening tools, power tools, and uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), and may also be used when replacing lead acid batteries.

The bq77910 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.

Features and benefits of the bq77910:

• Battery management and protection for 4 to 10-cell lithium batteries: Individual cell monitoring and balancing with internal FETs maximizes battery pack service life and performance.
• Low power operation: Low quiescent current (50 uA typical, 2.5 uA in shutdown mode) minimizes battery discharge during storage or idle periods to optimize battery life.
• Supports additional lithium battery chemistries: Programmable (EEPROM) fault detection thresholds and time delays make the bq77910 adaptable to all variations of lithium systems, including LiCoO2 and LiFePO4.
• Standalone integrated device does not require an external controller or processor.