PMIC for hearables helps extend the lithium-ion battery life of product designs

The MAX77734 power management IC (PMIC) from Maxim Integrated is now being stocked at Mouser. This tiny, ultra-low-power PMIC helps designers of wearable and hearable products extend the lithium-ion battery life of designs. The PMIC offers a flexible and configurable power management solution in a compact chip size of 2.23mm × 1.97mm. The PMIC integrates a linear-mode lithium-ion battery charger, LDO linear regulator, analog multiplexer, and dual-channel current sink driver to reduce external component count when designing small battery-operated products. The charger is designed for small-battery systems that require accurate termination as low as 0.375mA. The charger's programmable battery regulation voltage range (3.6V–4.6V) supports a wide variety of cell chemistries. The circuit can instantly regulate the system voltage when an input source is connected even if the battery is depleted. The 150mA LDO regulator's output is programmable between 0.8V and 3.975V with I2C, and the analog multiplexer enables an external ADC to perform conversions on battery voltage and current signals for power monitoring. The current sinks are capable of sinking 12.8 mA each and can be programmed for LEDs to blink in custom patterns. The device offers a standby current of just 1.5µA and a quiescent current of only 4.5µA when the LDO regulator is enabled. The device’s wide array of programmable options makes them ideal for many battery-powered devices, such as Bluetooth-enabled headsets, fitness monitors, wearable cameras, and low-power IoT devices. The PMIC is supported by the MAX77734 evaluation kit, which allows engineers to test linear charger, regulator, multiplexer and interface characteristics through a Windows-based GUI.