Balancing chip for supercapacitors is an industry first, claims ALD
Claimed to be the first MOSFET designed to automatically balance large 3V supercapacitors, the latest SAB MOSFET from Advanced Linear Devices (ALD) saves design time through automatic balancing of supercapacitor cells.
The latest addition to the quad family of Supercapacitor Auto Balancing (SAB) MOSFETS, the ALD810030 is a precision MOSFET array which offers a simple, economical and effective method to balance and regulate supercapacitors rated at a higher voltage, said the company.
The MOSFET is built using ALD EPAD production technology. It stabilises supercapacitors that can be used in a variety of applications, such as actuators, telematics, solar panels, emergency lighting, security equipment, barcode scanners, advanced metering boxes and battery backup systems.
The MOSFETs can balance two to four supercapacitors with very small voltage differences and dissipate no power beyond the actual leakage current differences between the two cells. When Vin of 3.0V is applied to the array, its Iout is 1.0 microA. For a 100mV increase in Vin to 3.10V, Iout increases by approximately ten-fold, said ALD. For an additional increase in Vin to 3.24V, Iout increases 100-fold to 100 microA, said the company. Conversely, for a 100mV decrease in Vin to 2.90V, Iout decreases to one-tenth of its previous value, to 0.1 microA. Another 100mV decrease in input voltage would reduce Iout 0.01 microA.
“The ability to offer power management for cells 3.00V or more is a market breakthrough,” commented ALD’s president and founder, Robert Chao.
The ALD810030 offers precise operating voltage and current characteristics for each of the four matched SAB MOSFET channels. It is available in quad packages, and is scalable. It can be used to balance up to four supercapacitors connected in parallel or series. Precision gate threshold voltage in the Vt mode is 3.0V when the gate drain source terminals (VGS = VDS) are connected at a drain source current of IDS(on) of 1.0 microA. Operating temperature is -40 to +85 degrees C.
The ALD810030SCLI is now available at either Digi-Key or Mouser.
