Hi;
A commercial product we have been commissioned to redesign uses the BQ24120 to charge and manage a single-cell 3600 mAh LiPoly battery. Input power is from an AC/DC wall adapter, at 9-16 VDC, and the charge current seems to be set at 2A. After reviewing the device and the circuitry, it looks like retaining the circuit in the new design should beOK.
I have, however, made the following two observations:
1. Current product seems to be experiencing a large number of failures related to the battery. These are returned to the turn-key manufacturer for rework. A scan through the rework reports indicates that 90% of the cases the BQ24120 had to be replaced. Some battery failures are mentioned as well.
2. TI Power Management Handbook for 2013 does not include this device (BQ24120) at all! Is this a simple error of omission, or might there be a reason for this exclusion, especially given the our observations of present failures?
Would any of my colleagues recommend a different device for this stand-alone battery charger application? Or should we be looking for some other culprit in the current design?
Recommendations and any thoughts would be much appreciated.
Best regards.
Omer
