Over-temperature protection devices target ultra-thin battery pack designs

Now available from Digi-Key, TE Connectivity's MHP-TAM series compact thin form factor over-temperature protection devices facilitate circuit protection in ultra-thin battery pack designs. The rapidly expanding market for ultra-thin portable electronic devices, such as media tablets and ultra-thin PCs, has created demand for very thin, low-profile, lightweight, and high-capacity lithium polymer (LiP) and prismatic cells. TE Connectivity's metal hybrid PPTC (MHP) device, the MHP-TAM, offers a 9VDC rating and a higher current rating than typical battery strap devices. This meets the battery safety requirements of higher-capacity LiP and prismatic batteries found in the latest tablet and ultra-thin computing products. Hybrid MHP technology connects a bimetal protector in parallel with a polymeric positive temperature coefficient (PPTC) device. The resulting MHP-TAM device helps provide resettable over-temperature protection while utilizing the PPTC device to act as a heater and to help keep the bimetal latched until the fault is removed, says the company.