Date
10/27/2015
PDF
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Supercapacitor Auto Balancing MOSFET
Advanced Linear Devices, Inc. (ALD), a design innovation leader in analog semiconductors, announced a family of Supercapacitor Auto Balancing (SAB) Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors (MOSFET) designed for industrial applications to regulate and balance leakage currents while minimizing energy used for balancing supercapacitor cells stacked in series stack of two or more.
The devices are ideal for a number of industrial-grade energy storage applications that require an operating temperature range between -40 to 85 degrees Celsius. The devices are ideally suited for a range of applications such as remote monitoring applications, automotive systems, backup power, transportation, automation, or any application that operates in exposure to the elements and needs to endure extreme climate conditions.
In outdoor industrial energy storage, leakage current of supercapacitors used in a stack is balanced by connecting one or more SAB MOSFETs across each cell. Leakage current balancing is critical to prevent damage to cells from over voltage that can dramatically shorten supercapacitor operating life.
“ALD’s industrial-grade SAB MOSFETS are designed to withstand a greater range of ambient temperature differential, and are therefore more reliable under greater stresses,” said Robert Chao, President and CEO of Advanced Linear Devices. “Operators of industrial grade systems demand the utmost in reliability so all of the components used must be able to withstand harsh environmental elements and climates,” Mr. Chao added.
Each device in the industrial SAB MOSFET ALD8100xxx/ALD9100xxx family contains 26 different products and each product can balance supercapacitor up to 4 cells in a single IC package. Starting with two cells, the devices can balance an unlimited number of supercapacitor cells stacked in a series.
Each device in the SAB MOSFET family dissipates near zero leakage current to eliminate extra power dissipation. They provide a superior circuit design alternative to passive or active balancing methods by offering automatic active leakage current regulation. As an alternative to op-amp based schemes, the high voltage SAB MOSFET arrays can reduce board space, and lower cost while enhancing system and component lifespan.
SAB MOSFETs connected across these supercapacitors exhibit complementary opposing current levels, resulting in little or no additional leakage currents other than those caused by the supercapacitors themselves.
Leakage current differences in series stacked supercapacitor make it difficult to control respective cell voltages. This causes one or more supercapacitor to exceed its rated voltage over time, which reduces lifespan by rupturing materials inside each cell. Eventually this leads to catastrophic failure, which can begin over days, weeks, or months.
The voltage dependent characteristic of the ALD810019xxx/ALD91001xxx on-resistance controls excessive voltage rise of each individual supercapacitor cell. In series-connected stacks, when one supercapacitor voltage rises, the voltage of the other supercapacitors drops. The supercapacitors that have the highest leakage currents also have the lowest voltages. By increasing drain current exponentially when voltages increase, and by decreasing drain current exponentially when voltages decrease, the MOSFET arrays automatically regulate the voltage across each supercapacitor cell.
The products offer different threshold voltages for various supercapacitor operating voltages and leakage current characteristics which diminishes energy spent in balancing the circuits. The new device family covers a wide range of operating voltages from 1.6V to 2.7V and leakage current ranges from <0.3nA to >3000μA.
Available in both quad and dual packages, the industrial SAB MOSFETs are made with ALD’s precision EPAD technology.
The ALD8100xx/ALD9100xx SAB MOSFET family is available in industry standard 16-L or 8-L SOIC packages. 1,000-piece pricing at Mouser or DigiKey beginning at $1.76 each.
