Battery charger reference design regulates charger output in constant voltage and constant current modes

Zilog introduces its new Buck Converter Battery Charger Reference Design that employs Zilog’s Z8F042A MCU to control a step-down DC-DC converter (also known as a buck converter) that functions as a regulated power source. This buck converter battery charger hardware is capable of regulating charger output in a number of modes such as constant voltage, or constant current with set current limits. The charger can be viewed as a complete control system. The type and capacity of the battery determines the mode of operation of the battery controller. The voltage and current setpoints are also determined by the type and capacity of the battery. All battery control loop operations can be controlled by the user via the Z8F042A MCU’s UART block, and feedback is provided in the HyperTerminal console. Additionally, LEDs provide a visual status of the charging process.

This low-cost reference design demonstrates a lithium ion battery charger consisting of a Z8F042A MCU and a buck converter. The charging process utilizes the highly accurate ADC peripheral and alternates between current and voltage monitoring which is controlled in the background software routine to allow for the UART to be processed in the main function. With the HyperTerminal GUI, the user can enter desired setvoltages and setcurrents. A proportional/integral (PI) control loop is used to charge the battery and to monitor the battery voltage after the charging process is completed. To save memory resources, the provided UART does not implement the STDIO.H libraries. Instead, a simple UART using only integer values is used.

Zilog’s Buck Converter Battery Charger Reference Design is available in the Zilog Store. For more information, visit www.zilog.com.

Zilog is the most trusted provider of application-specific embedded system single-chip (SoC) solutions for the industrial and consumer markets. Zilog? Originated from an award-winning architecture in the microprocessor and microcontroller industries, it has been upgraded from core silicon technology to include SoCs, single board computers, application software stacks and development tools. With it, embedded designers in areas such as energy management, monitoring and metering, and motion detection can accelerate time-to-market.

Тег: Reference Designs Power Newsletters

Предыдущий: Silicon Labs SNAP Enabled Programmable XCVR Development Tools

Следующий: Atmel SAMA5D3 Cortex-A5 eMPUs