Halo Microelectronics, a maker of analog and power management integrated circuits enabling energy-efficient smart systems, announces the release of its HL7040C, a highly integrated family of 2×2 mm single-cell Li-Ion and Li-Pol linear charger.

The HL7040C is suitable for portable applications, including smartphones, PDAs, MP3 players, and low-powered handheld devices with limited board space, as it operates from either a USB port or an AC adapter. The high-input voltage range with input over-voltage protection also supports low-cost unregulated adapters.

The HL7040C has a single power output that charges the battery, and a system load that can be placed in parallel with the battery as long as the average system load does not keep the battery from charging fully during the 10-hour safety timer.

As the battery is charged in three phases — pre-charge to recover a fully discharged battery, fast-charge constant current to supply the buck charge safely, and voltage regulation to safely reach full capacity — an internal control loop monitors the IC junction temperature and reduces the charge current if an internal temperature threshold is exceeded.

The HL7040C also comes with a full set of safety features, including the JEITA temperature standard, over-voltage protection, DPM-In, safety timers, and ISET short protection. The device is designed for a single-power path from the input to the output to charge a single-cell Li-Ion or Li-Pol battery pack.

In the charger-power stage with the charger-current sense functionally integrated, the charger function has a high-accuracy current, and the voltage regulation loop charge display and charge termination. In addition, the pre-charge current, termination current threshold, and fast-charge current are all programmed via an external resistor.

“The new HL7040C features a 1% charge-voltage accuracy, a 10% charge-current accuracy, and a selectable 100 mA/500 mA input current with key protection. It also includes a programmable hot-fault threshold making the IC one-off from its competition, thus making it ideal for portable applications,” said David Nam, CEO of Halo Microelectronics.