Industry's first monolithic EDLC cell-balancing IC

Rohm has announced the development of a cell-balancing IC that contributes to increased miniaturization, greater stability, and longer life for electric double layer capacitors (EDLCs), which are driving the adoption of energy regeneration applications in industrial equipment, automotive idling stop systems, and voltage sag (instantaneous voltage drop) countermeasures. The BD14000EFV-C integrates over 20 discrete components required for EDLC cell balancing on a single chip, reducing mounting area by 38% over conventional solutions while eliminating component variations, making it easy to configure compact, high reliability EDLC systems. In addition to cell balancing functionality for up to six cells, multiple ICs can be connected in series to enable simultaneous control of even more cells. The cell balancing voltage can be set between 2.4V and 3.1V, ensuring support for a variety of EDLCs. Flag output is also built in, along with an over-current detection voltage function with adjustable detection voltage setting based on the cell balancing voltage. In addition, AEC-Q100 qualification ensures worry-free use in automotive and other environments requiring high reliability. Compared to other storage devices, EDLC offers faster charge/discharge performance, longer life, and greater safety while minimizing environmental impact, making it ideal for a variety of applications – including automotive and industrial systems. And every year higher voltages and greater capacitances are demanded for use under high power environments. When connecting multiple EDLCs in series to support higher voltages, the voltage applied to each EDLC cell may vary, which can adversely affect the lifetime and shorten the amount of time they can be safely used. And up to now cell balancing operation has been achieved through discrete configurations, making it necessary to address a number of issues such as board space and design load in order to minimize fluctuations while maintaining reliable cell balancing operation. In response ROHM, in cooperation with Nippon Chemi-Con Corp., an industry leader in the development of EDLCs and aluminium electrolytic capacitors, has developed a compact, easy-to-mount EDLC cell balancing IC that provides high performance operation and integrates multiple protection functions, says the company.