
LTC4090
17
4090f
For example, if the full charge current is programmed
to 500mA with a 100k PROG resistor the CHRG pin will
change state at a battery charge current of 50mA.
Note: The end-of-charge (EOC) comparator that moni-
tors the charge current latches its decision. Therefore,
the rst time the charge current drops below 10% of the
programmed full charge current while in constant volt-
age mode, it will toggle CHRG to a high impedance state.
If, for some reason the charge current rises back above
the threshold, the CHRG pin will not resume the strong
pull-down state. The EOC latch can be reset by a recharge
cycle (i.e., VBAT drops below the recharge threshold) or
toggling the input power to the part.
Automatic Recharge
After the battery charger terminates, it will remain off
drawing only microamperes of current from the battery. If
the product remains in this state long enough, the battery
will eventually self discharge. To ensure that the battery is
always topped off, a charge cycle will automatically begin
when the battery voltage falls below VRECHRG (typically
4.1V). To prevent brief excursions below VRECHRG from
resetting the safety timer, the battery voltage must be
below VRECHRG for more than a few milliseconds. The
charge cycle and safety timer will also restart if the IN
UVLO cycles low and then high (e.g. IN, is removed and
then replaced).
Thermal Regulation
To prevent thermal damage to the IC or surrounding
components, an internal thermal feedback loop will
automatically decrease the programmed charge current
if the die temperature rises to approximately 105°C.
Thermal regulation protects the LTC4090 from excessive
temperature due to high power operation or high ambient
thermal conditions and allows the user to push the limits
of the power handling capability with a given circuit board
design without risk of damaging the LTC4090 or external
components. The benet of the LTC4090 thermal regula-
tion loop is that charge current can be set according to
actual conditions rather than worst-case conditions with
the assurance that the battery charger will automatically
reduce the current in worst-case conditions.
Undervoltage Lockout
An internal undervoltage lockout circuit monitors the input
voltage (IN) and the output voltage (OUT) and disables
either the input current limit or the battery charger circuits
or both. The input current limit circuitry is disabled until
VIN rises above the undervoltage lockout threshold and VIN
exceeds VOUTby50mV.Thebatterychargercircuitsaredis-
abled until VOUT exceeds VBAT by 50mV. Both undervoltage
lockout comparators have built-in hysteresis.
NTC Thermistor
The battery temperature is measured by placing a nega-
tive temperature coefcient (NTC) thermistor close to
the battery pack. To use this feature connect the NTC
thermistor, RNTC, between the NTC pin and ground and a
bias resistor, RNOM, from VNTC to NTC. RNOM should be
a 1% resistor with a value equal to the value of the chosen
NTC thermistor at 25°C (denoted R25C).
The LTC4090 will pause charging when the resistance of
the NTC thermistor drops to 0.41 times the value of R25C
or approximately 4.1k (for a Vishay “Curve 2” thermis-
tor, this corresponds to approximately 50°C). The safety
timer also pauses until the thermistor indicates a return
to a valid temperature. As the temperature drops, the re-
sistance of the NTC thermistor rises. The LTC4090 is also
designed to pause charging (and timer) when the value of
the NTC thermistor increases to 2.82 times the value of
R25C. For a Vishay “Curve 2” thermistor this resistance,
28.2k, corresponds to approximately 0°C. The hot and cold
comparators each have approximately 3°C of hysteresis
to prevent oscillation about the trip point. Grounding the
NTC pin disables all NTC functionality.
OPERATION