Introduction

Given the ubiquitous nature of battery-powered systems, battery management has become a required feature on most new designs. The purpose of battery management is threefold;

• Control of the battery charging
• Regulation of the battery output for use by the system circuitry
• Monitoring the charge input/output to approximate the amount of remaining charge

This application note will address all three areas; charging, load regulation and battery charge/health estimation. To simplify the design, an ASIC charger and ASIC switching regulator will be used to do the actual charging and load regulation in the design. Two high-side current mirrors will also be used to monitor both the battery charging and battery load currents.