Power IC for Bluetooth LE has reset, battery fuel gauge, watchdog and more

Author: EIS Release Date: Jan 10, 2023

Nordic Semiconductor has announced a power management IC for devices with Bluetooth Low Energy interfaces that includes battery charging and four regulated power outputs.

 

Nordic nPM1300 dcdc package photo

To be called nPM1300, it is to emerge in 3.1 x 2.4mm WL-CSP or 5 x 5mm QFN packaging and be controllable over an I2C compatible interface.

 

“The interface provides access to system management functions such as hard reset, battery fuel gauge, system-level watchdog, power loss warning and recovery from failed boot,” according to the company.

 

It operates from 4.0 to 5.5V rail, as well as from a battery down to 2.4V.

 

Two internal dc-dc buck converters are configurable between 1.0 and 3.3V at up to 200mA.

 

“The other two power rails operate as load switches, switching currents of up to 100mA from external sources, but can also perform as LDOs when powered directly by the nPM1300,” said Nordic.

 

When operating as LDOs, they can deliver between 1.0 and 3.3V at up to 50mA.

 

Charging is for a single Li-ion, Li-Pol or LiFePO4 cells, through a linear regulator that can deliver up to 800mA. Termination is programmable from 3.5 to 4.45V. Maximum chip temperature during charging is programmable.

 

USB port detection allows current limits of 100mA or 500mA from standard USB, or up to 1.5A through USB-C PD (power delivery). Switch-over to battery power is automatic.

 

Other features include: voltage, current and temperature monitoring for fuel gauging, low current hibernate mode with programmable wake-up timer, three LED drivers and five GPIOs. The latter “can be re-purposed to direct control lines to time-critical control functions as an alternative to serial commands”, according to Nordic.

 

Applications are primarily envisaged supporting Nordic’s nRF52 and nRF53 multi-protocol wireless ICs, some of which have sensor interfaces. Use in wearables and portable medical devices is foreseen.

 

Limited samples are available now, and the devices “will be available to order from Nordic’s distributors mid-2023”, it said.