Renesas Electronics Corporation, a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, announced an innovative new family of bidirectional four-switch synchronous buck-boost controllers. The ISL81601 and ISL81401 are the industry’s only true bidirectional controllers that sense peak current at both ends and provide cycle-by-cycle current limit in both directions while in buck or boost mode.
The ISL81601 and ISL81401’s bidirectional peak current sensing capability eliminates complex external circuitry required for charging and discharging a battery to supply power to the loads. Their proprietary algorithm provides smooth mode transitions between buck, boost and buck-boost, while reducing low frequency ripple at Vout, ensuring minimal disturbances during line or load transients.
“Our new bidirectional buck-boost controllers eliminate extra sensing circuitry and offer customers a robust feature-set that maintains battery health and superior power utilization,” said Philip Chesley, Vice President of Industrial Analog and Power Business Division, Renesas Electronics Corporation. “Leveraging Renesas’ proprietary modulation scheme and algorithms allows the highly integrated ISL81601, ISL81401 and ISL81401A to achieve the high reliability performance required for battery-powered equipment,” he added.
Key Features of ISL81601, ISL81401 and ISL81401A
- Single inductor 4-switch buck-boost controllers
- Bidirectional operation (ISL81601 & ISL81401) with four feedback control loops
- Independent voltage and current feedback loop control
- Constant current/constant voltage profile for input and output
- Supports on-the-fly changes in parametric settings using microcontroller
- Programmable frequency: 100kHz to 600kHz
- MOSFET drivers with adaptive shoot-through protection
- 8V drive (ISL81601), and 5V drive (ISL81401/A) for optimized efficiency
- Light load efficiency mode and 2.7µA shutdown current extends battery life
- Frequency dithering for lower EMI (ISL81601 & ISL81401)
- Extensive multilayer protection for overvoltage, undervoltage, overcurrent, overtemperature, and short circuit
The ISL81601 and ISL81401/A can be combined with a Renesas RL78 microcontroller (MCU), or other MCUs, to program the voltages, battery charge/discharge function, and on-the-fly bidirectional power flow. Designers can also use the PowerCompass tool to help them quickly identify other power supply parts that match their specific system requirements. Multiple power rails can be set up and designers can perform high-level system analysis and generate custom reference design files in minutes.
