Manager integrates more for portable power

The SMB118 integrates six precision programmable regulators and programmable battery charging to reduce system size and cost in portable consumer electronics.

Summit Microelectronics has announced the newest addition to the company's second generation of multiple-output programmable power manager ICs.

As a true "one-chip solution" the SMB118 integrates six precision programmable regulators and programmable battery charging to reduce system size and cost in portable consumer electronics.

Like the previously announced SMB122, the SMB118 combines analogue power regulation and programmable digital power management, providing design flexibility for parametric adjustment and functional configuration.

Summit's easy-to-use PC-based graphical (GUI) development environment allows system designers to digitally program the entire multiple output power supply and associated power management functions with a few clicks of a mouse.

In high-volume production Summit provides product that is preprogrammed with the customer's "custom configuration" at no extra cost.

Compared with inflexible conventional analogue power ICs, the SMB118 yields optimised power system designs in significantly less development time.

The SMB118 incorporates three synchronous step-down convertors, one step-up convertor, one configurable step-up or step-down convertor, and one low-dropout (LDO) linear regulator.

Also included is a fully programmable battery charger for single-cell Li-ion and Li-polymer cells.

All charging parameters are configurable, enabling the utilisation of a wide variety of battery packs without hardware changes.

The SMB118 offers an output voltage accuracy of +/-1.5% for all DC/DC outputs and a float voltage accuracy of +/-1.0% for the battery charger.

DC/DC Power conversion efficiency of up to 95% reduces thermal dissipation and improves battery life in portable systems.

Further enhancing battery life, a shutdown mode reduces current consumption to 0.1mA while automatic PWM/PFM operation improves light load efficiency.

For noise-sensitive radio-frequency (RF) or audio applications the SMB118's oscillator frequency is selectable between 500kHz and 1MHz in 250kHz steps and fixed-frequency PWM override inhibits PFM mode.

Short circuit current limiting and thermal protection safety circuits are also built-in to enhance reliability.

The SMB118 operates directly from +2.7 to +6.0V input making it ideally suited for single-cell Li-ion or Li-polymer (+3.0 to +4.2V) battery applications, though line-powered applications are easily supported as well.

Higher input voltages (two-cell Li-ion, +12V etc) can be accommodated in many cases with simple applications configuration.

The SMB118 provides digital power management via an I2C interface and nonvolatile memory allowing the user to configure power functions and parameters for each channel: individual channel enabling/disabling, power-up/down sequencing, power-up slew rate control, static and dynamic output voltage control (dynamic voltage management).

A broad range of intelligent power system diagnostics and monitoring functions are also provided, which can be easily accessed via the I2C serial interface.

These include input and output monitoring for under- and overvoltage and overcurrent, integrated reset control, low/missing battery detection and AC/DC battery detection.

"The SMB118 programmable power manager further extends Summit's leadership in programmable power management, providing an ideal solution for applications that require both high-performance power regulation and sophisticated digital power control", stated Abid Hussain, Summit Director of Marketing.

"The integration of regulators and programmable battery charging in a space-saving 7 x 7mm QFN package makes the SMB118 a complete, one-chip, solution for today's feature-packed, space-constrained designs".

The SMB118 is well suited for powering components commonly found in digital consumer electronics such as digital still cameras/camcorders (DSC/DCC), portable MP3/MEPG4 players, GPS terminals, personal digital assistants (PDAs), as well as the next generation of "smart" mobile phones.

The dynamic voltage management feature is particularly useful in Xscale and ARM CPU applications and where LED backlight brightness control is desired.

The SMB118 has an operating temperature range of 0 to +70 or -40 to +85C and is available in the 7 x 7mm 48-pad QFN package that is lead-free and RoHS-standard compliant.

Available now in production quantities, the device is priced at $4.89 each in quantities of 10,000 units.

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