Texas Instruments has launched the first lead-acid battery management IC featuring a proprietary “Impedance Track” capacity measurement technology for lead-acid batteries. The bq34z110 “gas gauge” IC claims to be the industry’s only scalable power management device to support multi-cell lead-acid battery packs with voltages of 4, 12, 24, 48 V or higher. The highly accurate, user-friendly gas gauge supports batteries used in mobile and stationary applications such as medical instruments, wireless base stations and telecom shelters, e-bikes, inverters and uninterruptible power supplies.

 

Lead-acid batteries typically behave better than lithium-ion batteries in environments with wide temperature ranges, but conventional lead-acid battery designs do not accurately measure and report current battery capacity, which often frustrates end users and can lead to adding more batteries to keep the system adequately powered. The new chip keeps users constantly informed about the battery’s state of health and state of charge and maintains up to 95% accurate capacity measurement for the entire life of the battery. This information also prevents premature shutdown, increasing the longevity of the battery and end equipment.