Stand-Alone Lead Acid Battery Balancing IC Works with Up to Four 12 Volt Batteries in Series

摘要

Battery power group Linear Technology Corp. has released the LTC3305, a single IC, stand-alone multicell battery balancer for 12 V lead acid batteries. Balancing works by absorbing charge from higher voltage batteries and transferring that charge to lower voltage batteries so that all are charged equally. Charge is transferred using a lower capacity battery that is sequentially connected across the batteries in the stack. Not only does this battery transfer charge, but the energy in the transfer battery adds to the total energy in the stack, thus increasing capacity. Included on the chip is sequencing, drive circuitry for high voltage external NFETs, voltage monitoring and protection. The LTC3305 is designed for stand-alone operation and does not require a microprocessor or other control circuitry. With the LTC3305, one battery in the stack can be replaced and balanced to the remaining batteries. The LTC3305 is well suited for applications such as telecom backup systems, home batterypowered backup systems, electric vehicles and industrial lighting systems.