Japanese electronics company Rohm has announced an evaluation board that facilitates verification of battery management for the IoT field.

Recent years have seen the proliferation of battery-driven electronic devices, including wearables, industrial IoT such as smart cards and electronic shelf labels, and portables. These devices not only need to be made smaller and thinner to improve design and functionality, but also have to support larger battery capacities and lower power consumption to improve usability and convenience.

In response, Rohm has developed low-consumption analogue ICs, including power supply ICs that incorporate original Nano Energy low current technology as well as charge control ICs compatible with a wide range of rechargeable batteries.

The REFLVBMS001-EVK-001 evaluation board provides efficient battery management for thin compact IoT devices by combining these technologies.

The board is equipped with a power supply IC (buck DC-DC converter IC) and reset IC (voltage detector IC) using original Nano Energy low current consumption technology. In addition, it has a battery charger IC that supports low voltage rechargeable batteries, along with the NGK Insulators’ thin, large capacity EnerCera Li-ion rechargeable battery.

The low current consumption of the power supply IC – quiescent current 180nA – reduces loss. The battery charger IC is suitable for a wide range of charge voltages; it can charge, monitor and discharge batteries making it suitable for compact IoT devices. The result is a low profile, efficient battery management product that is 0.60mm thick, including the rechargeable battery.

Going forward, Rohm says it will continue to develop power saving analogue ICs such as power supply ICs that contribute to power efficiency in a wide range of applications.

The EnerCera EC382704P-C rechargeable battery is 0.45mm thick and has a capacity of 27mAh. The BD70522GUL Nano Energy IC has a quiescent current of 180nA. The BD71631QWZ battery charger IC is for charging batteries in the range of 2.0 to 4.7V, which is suitable for monitoring, charging and discharging batteries. All this allows configuration of an optimised energy storage unit.

In addition, the BD5230NVX-2C reset IC is used for detecting abnormal voltages at a standby current of 270nA. This makes it possible to extend the overall standby by a factor of 60 and enables proper evaluation of an efficient battery management system. All mounted components are less than 0.60mm thick (1.60mm when including the board), thus allowing use as a reference design for thin IoT applications such as smart cards.

Applications include wearables such as smart watches and keyless entry, and compact industrial IoT devices, including electronic shelf labels, smart cards, smart meters and alarms. They can also be used for other IoT equipment requiring smaller, thinner form factors and longer battery life.

Rohm develops and manufactures a product range from SiC diodes and mosfets, analogue ICs such as gate drivers and power management ICs to power transistors and diodes to passive components. Production is in manufacturing plants in Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines and China.