A battery fuel gauge, also known as a battery gas gauge, determines battery state-of-charge (SOC) and state-of-health. A battery fuel gauge IC can predict how much longer, under specific operating conditions, the battery can continue to provide power. Inadequate battery life and unreliable battery SOC reporting are some of the most common complaints about any battery-powered device. Highly accurate battery fuel gauges are needed to avoid surprise shutdowns and are critical for a positive user experience.

Our battery fuel gauges have been successfully used in over one billion devices. Time-to-empty, time-to-full, battery age forecasting, and dynamic power features extend run-time of transient loads. Industry-leading features include:

Our patented ModelGauge algorithm provides the industry's best accuracy for reporting battery SOC. By eliminating the current-sense resistor and other external components, our ModelGauge battery fuel gauge ICs also save cost and space.

ModelGauge m5 Battery Fuel Gauges

Our patented ModelGauge m5 algorithm combines the excellent short-term accuracy and linearity of a coulomb counter, the long-term stability of a voltage-based ModelGauge battery fuel gauge, and temperature compensation to provide industry-leading fuel-gauge accuracy. In addition, as the battery approaches the critical region near empty, the ModelGauge m5 algorithm invokes a special error correction mechanism that eliminates any error. These battery gauge ICs provide accurate estimation of time-to-empty and time-to-full while charging, and three methods for reporting the age of the battery: reduction in capacity, increase in battery resistance, and cycle odometer.

Dynamic battery power technology enables the system to operate at peak performance by providing real-time information on the maximum power that the battery can deliver without violating the minimum system voltage requirement. At the same time, the algorithm enables the battery gas gauge to operate at very low quiescent current, which extends the operating life for small battery applications. Some versions include Cycle+™ age forecast and SHA-256 authentication to prevent the use of counterfeit batteries.

ModelGauge m5 EZ Algorithm

The ModelGauge m5 EZ algorithm makes battery fuel gauge implementation easier by eliminating battery characterization requirements. The m5 EZ algorithm delivers highly accurate battery SOC, for most use cases, without requiring the usual lengthy battery characterization process, resulting in shorter design cycles. The robust algorithm also provides tolerance of battery diversity for most lithium batteries and applications.

Battery Fuel Gauges with Authentication and Protection

We also offer battery fuel gauge ICs with authentication and protection. Some devices integrate a battery gauge with a lithium-ion protector and a Secure Hash Algorithm-1 (SHA-1) or Secure Hash Algorithm-2 (SHA-2) based on the challenge-response authentication system.

Battery Gauge Analog Front-Ends (AFEs)

Our battery gauge AFEs are precision analog front-end ICs for measuring current, voltage, and temperature. On-chip temperature measurements eliminate the need for a thermistor in the battery pack. Our battery gauge AFEs can also use temperature data to enable gain and temperature-coefficient compensation in the current measurement, thereby allowing the use of a low-cost current-sense resistor.

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ModelGauge Battery Fuel Gauge Technology