LTC Announces LTC1734L Lithium Battery Charger

Linear Technology Corp. (LTC, Milpitas, CA) introduced its new LTC1734L, a 50mA to 180mA, linear single-cell, lithium-ion/lithium-polymer battery charger in a ThinSOT™ package, which occupies 36mm² board area and has a profile of less than 1mm. The LTC1734L provides a fixed float voltage of 4.2V with +1 percent accuracy and is suitable for use in Bluetooth headsets, text messaging pagers, MP3 players, cell phones, portable data terminals, barcode readers, glucose monitors and data storage devices.

The LTC1734L is optimized for low-current charging and uses a standard inexpensive resistor to set the charge current from 50mA to 180mA. The PROG pin provides charge-current setting, charge-current monitoring and shutdown. The voltage on the PROG pin is proportional to charge current and can be monitored by a micro-controller for gas gauging and charge termination. The LTC1734L also features an automatic sleep mode, manual shutdown, under-voltage lockout, and self-protection against over-current and over-temperature.

The LTC1734L is priced at $1.25 each in 1,000-piece quantities.