35 Cell Lithium-Ion/Lithium-Polymer Battery Protection Analog FrontEnd IC

The new addition to Ricoh’s battery management ICs portfolio is designed for Lithium-ion or Lithium-polymer battery packs of three up to five cells in series. Applications include cordless power tools, robot vacuum cleaners, lawn mowers, and electrical bikes.

Traditional stand-alone protection ICs have internally fixed hardware settings for various monitoring thresholds that decide to interrupt the charge or discharge process and control the external dual MOSFET. The advantage of an AFE IC versus a stand-alone protection IC is the flexible concept enabling short time to the market. An AFE IC is a measurement device of which the results are forwarded to a MCU (microcontroller unit). The fact that all threshold settings are saved within the software of the MCU and software settings are easily adaptable means a significant advantage. Therefore, an AFE IC is more convenient to use as a standard measurement IC for various battery pack designs.

About Ricoh

Ricoh Electronic Devices Company, Ltd. (REDC) is a leading global provider of semiconductor products, offering a comprehensive portfolio of CMOS Power Management and Real Time Clock IC solutions that enable engineers to design advanced applications for the consumer, industrial, Internet of Things (IoT), medical and automotive markets.

REDC has extensive expertise in small-sized products providing low-supply current, high-accuracy, high efficiency and high-reliability.

With certificates for quality management (ISO9001 and ISO/TS16949) and environmental management (ISO14001), REDC strives to provide high quality products and solutions with less impact on the global environment.

The company's headquarters are based in Japan, as well as development, sales and manufacturing facilities. Regional sales and support offices are located in North America, Europe, and Asia.