Table 1. Design Parameters

8.2.2.1 Selection of R_BAT

TI strongly recommends that the battery not be tied directly to the VBAT pin of the device, as under some failure modes of the IC, the voltage at the IN pin may appear on the VBAT pin. This voltage can be as high as 30 V, and applying 30 V to the battery in case of the failure of the bq2431x can be hazardous. Connecting the VBAT pin through R_BAT prevents a large current from flowing into the battery in case of a failure of the IC. In the interests of safety, R_BAT should have a very high value. The problem with a large R_BAT is that the voltage drop across this resistor because of the VBAT bias current I_VBAT causes an error in the BV_OVP threshold. This error is over and above the tolerance on the nominal 4.35-V BV_OVP threshold.

Choosing R_BAT in the range 100 kΩ to 470 kΩ is a good compromise. In the case of an IC failure, with R_BAT equal to 100 kΩ, the maximum current flowing into the battery would be (30 V – 3 V) ÷ 100 kΩ = 246 μA, which is low enough to be absorbed by the bias currents of the system components. R_BAT equal to 100 kΩ would result in a worst-case voltage drop of R_BAT × I_VBAT = 1mV. This is negligible to compared to the internal tolerance of
50 mV on BV_OVP threshold.

If the Bat-OVP function is not required, the VBAT pin must be connected to VSS.

8.2.2.2 Selection of R_CE, R_FAULT, and R_PU

The CE pin can be used to enable and disable the IC. If host control is not required, the CE pin can be tied to ground or left unconnected, permanently enabling the device.

In applications where external control is required, the CE pin can be controlled by a host processor. As in the case of the VBAT pin, the CE pin must be connected to the host GPIO pin through as large a resistor as possible. The limitation on the resistor value is that the minimum V_OH of the host GPIO pin less the drop across the resistor must be greater than V_IH of the bq2431× CE pin. The drop across the resistor is given by R_CE × I_IH.

The FAULT pin is an open-drain output that goes low during OV, OC, battery-OV, and OT events. If the application does not require monitoring of the FAULT pin, it can be left unconnected. But if the FAULT pin has to be monitored, it must be pulled high externally through R_PU, and connected to the host through R_FAULT. R_FAULT prevents damage to the host controller if the bq2431x fails. The resistors should be of high value, in practice values between 22 kΩ and 100 kΩ should be sufficient.

8.2.2.3 Selection of Input and Output Bypass Capacitors

The input capacitor C_IN in Figure 11 is for decoupling, and serves an important purpose. Whenever there is a step change downwards in the system load current, the inductance of the input cable causes the input voltage to spike up. C_IN prevents the input voltage from overshooting to dangerous levels. TI strongly recommends that a ceramic capacitor of at least 1 μF be used at the input of the device. It must be located in close proximity to the IN pin.

C_OUT in Figure 11 is also important: If a very fast (< 1-μs rise time) overvoltage transient occurs at the input, the current that charges C_OUT causes the current-limiting loop of the device to kick in, reducing the gate-drive to FET Q1. This results in improved performance for input overvoltage protection. C_OUT must also be a ceramic capacitor of at least 1 μF, located close to the OUT pin. C_OUT also serves as the input decoupling capacitor for the charging circuit downstream of the protection IC.