Nexperia Battery Life Booster for IoT - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Kean
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 10, 2023, 06:19:58 am
content: I'm unsure about this being dodgy, but the claims bring back awful memories of the Batterizer/Batteroo.While I have only skim read the info, I suspect this is sufficiently advanced in comparison considering there is an I2C/SPI interface plus super cap integration.From the product launch announcement email (my emphasis):QuoteLanding page:https://www.nexperia.com/products/analog-logic-ics/power-ics/battery-management-ics/Info leaflet:https://assets.nexperia.com/documents/leaflet/nexperia_document_leaflet_battery_life_booster_NBM5100_NBM7100.pdfAnyone looked into this? Even better if you've run the numbers...

author: Chalcogenide
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 10, 2023, 07:07:47 am
content: I think that the main idea is that in IoT applications, your product may stop working long before the battery is out of energy, because you may be limited by the capability of your battery to provide enough peak power for the transmission. Internal resistance of coin cell batteries rises rather quickly as energy gets depleted so there can be situations where your peak power cannot be delivered even if the same battery would last a lot longer under a lower load. These chips essentially "smooth out" the peak by supplying the peak power from a capacitor and then slowly charging it from the coin cell while keeping the average current low, thus reducing the strain on the battery.I think that there are legit use cases for these chips, but I have a hard time believing the 10x battery life improvement, unless in applications where you have a huge peak power and a really poor battery.

author: Kean
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 10, 2023, 07:15:57 am
content: Oh yes, agree with you there. I don't think it is all BS, but the "up to x10" statement may be somewhat... exaggerated??I saw in the leaflet it says "extending the useful lifetime between replacement by typically 4-10 times".

author: Someone
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 10, 2023, 07:45:01 am
content: Not going to try and hunt down what they call a "competing solution" (almost certainly something without a supercap as that is what provides 99% of the functionality here) but there are other manufacturers selling roughly the same thing; an ultra low quiescent current switching regulator with programmable cycle-by-cycle or peak current limit. So I know of several competing solutions which would be almost indistinguishable in performance to this.Cute integration with a (lossy?) supercap balancer and charge accumulator.

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 11, 2023, 08:50:34 pm
content: Anyone know the maximum current draw of BLE? I would have thought its super low.Kind of odd examples they use: "Consumer/wearable: location tags, heart rate monitor, blood glucose meter"Heart rate monitors last forever on a single CR2032, 300+ hours.Would be cool though to see a comparison of battery life for: CR2032 alone, CR2032 w/ supercap, etc.

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 06, 2023, 09:35:30 pm
content: Quote from: thm_w on August 11, 2023, 08:50:34 pmDepends on the chipset and transmit power. Around +3dBm would require ca. 20-30mA for an inefficient radio IC and <10mA for an efficient one. I suspect this chip is more useful for things like Wi-Fi and Zigbee where transmit power can increase and data rates are possibly higher.

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 06, 2023, 11:34:57 pm
content: Quote from: tom66 on September 06, 2023, 09:35:30 pmYeah WiFi would make more sense then, and they don't even mention it in the examples.

author: Kasper
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 13, 2023, 04:59:42 am
content: Quote from: thm_w on August 11, 2023, 08:50:34 pmSome wearables use a suprising amount of power.Heart rate monitors: I've seen PPG LED drivers that can sink 100mA * multiple channels. I doubt that is needed on the wrist but maybe upper arm or chest.I've also seen a pump, a 500mW valve and even a 4W heater in different wearables.

author: Kasper
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 13, 2023, 03:08:47 pm
content: Here's one for heart rate and SpO2. 3 channels that each source up to 124mA, for 117us.https://www.analog.com/en/products/max86141.htmlQuote