
Features
➤
Conservative and repeatable
measurement of available charge
in rechargeable batteries
➤
Designed for battery pack inte
-
gration
-
120µA typical standby current
-
Small size enables implementations in as little as
1
2
square inch of PCB
➤
Integrate within a system or as a
stand-alone device
-
Display capacity via singlewire serial communication
port or direct drive of LEDs
➤ Measurements compensated for
current and temperature
➤ Self-discharge compensation us-
ing internal temperature sensor
➤ Accurate measurements across a
wide range of current (> 500:1)
➤ 16-pin narrow SOIC
General Description
The bq2010 Gas Gauge IC is intended
for battery-pack or in-system installa
tion to maintain an accurate record of
a battery's available charge. The IC
monitors a voltage drop across a
sense resistor connected in series be
tween the negative battery terminal
and ground to determine charge and
discharge activity of the battery.
NiMH and NiCd battery self-dis
charge is estimated based on an inter
nal timer and temperature sensor.
Compensations for battery tempera
ture and rate of charge or discharge
are applied to the charge, discharge,
and self-discharge calculations to pro
vide available charge information
across a wide range of operating conditions. Battery capacity is automatically recalibrated, or “learned,” in the
course of a discharge cycle from full to
empty.
Nominal available charge may be
directly indicated using a five- or
six-segment LED display. These segments are used to indicate graphically the nominal available charge.
The bq2010 supports a simple
single-line bidirectional serial link to
an external processor (common
ground). The bq2010 outputs battery
information in response to external
commands over the serial link.
The bq2010 may operate directly
from 3 or 4 cells. With the REF out
-
put and an external transistor, a sim
ple, inexpensive regulator can be built
to provide V
CC
across a greater
number of cells.
Internal registers include available
charge, temperature, capacity, battery
ID, battery status, and programming
pin settings. To support subassembly
testing, the outputs may also be con
trolled. The external processor may
also overwrite some of the bq2010
gas gauge data registers.
1
LCOM LED common output
SEG
1
/PROG1LED segment 1/
program 1 input
SEG
2
/PROG2LED segment 2/
program 2 input
SEG
3
/PROG3LED segment 3/
program 3 input
SEG
4
/PROG4LED segment 4/
program 4 input
SEG
5
/PROG5LED segment 5/
program 5 input
SEG
6
/PROG6LED segment 6/
program 6 input
1
PN201001.eps
16-Pin Narrow SOIC
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
16
15
14
13
12
11
10
9
V
CC
REF
NC
DQ
EMPTY
SB
DISP
SR
LCOM
SEG1/PROG
1
SEG2/PROG
2
SEG3/PROG
3
SEG4/PROG
4
SEG5/PROG
5
SEG6/PROG
6
V
SS
REF Voltage reference output
NC No connect
DQ Serial communications
input/output
EMPTY Empty battery indicator
output
SB Battery sense input
DISP
Display control input
SR Sense resistor input
V
CC
3.0–6.5V
V
SS
System ground
bq2010
Pin Connections
Pin Names
4/95 D
Gas Gauge IC

Pin Descriptions
LCOM
LED common output
Open-drain output switches V
CC
to source
current for the LEDs. The switch is off dur
ing initialization to allow reading of the soft
pull-up or pull-down program resistors.
LCOM is also high impedance when the dis
play is off.
SEG
1
–
SEG
6
LED display segment outputs (dual func
tion with PROG
1
–PROG6)
Each output may activate an LED to sink
the current sourced from LCOM.
PROG
1
–
PROG
2
Programmed full count selection inputs
(dual function with SEG
1
–SEG2)
These three-level input pins define the pro
grammed full count (PFC) thresholds de
scribed in Table 2.
PROG
3
–
PROG
4
Gas gauge rate selection inputs (dual
function with SEG
3
–SEG4)
These three-level input pins define the scale
factor described in Table 2.
PROG
5
Self-discharge rate selection (dual function with SEG
5
)
This three-level input pin defines the
selfdischarge compensation rate shown in Table 1.
PROG
6
Display mode selection (dual function
with SEG
6
)
This three-level pin defines the display op
eration shown in Table 1.
NC
No connect
SR
Sense resistor input
The voltage drop (V
SR
) across the sense re
-
sistor R
S
is monitored and integrated over
time to interpret charge and discharge activ
ity. The SR input is tied to the high side of
the sense resistor. V
SR<VSS
indicates dis
charge, and V
SR>VSS
indicates charge. The
effective voltage drop, V
SRO
, as seen by the
bq2010 is V
SR+VOS
(see Table 5).
DISP
Display control input
DISP
high disables the LED display. DISP
tied to VCCallows PROGXto connect directly
to V
CC
or VSSinstead of through a pull-up or
pull-down resistor. DISP
floating allows the
LED display to be active during discharge or
charge if the NAC registers update at a rate
equivalent to |V
SRO
|≥4mV. DISP low acti
-
vates the display. See Table 1.
SB
Secondary battery input
This input monitors the single-cell voltage
potential through a high-impedance resistive divider network for end-of-discharge
voltage (EDV) thresholds, maximum charge
voltage (MCV), and battery removed.
EMPTY
Battery empty output
This open-drain output becomes high-impedance
on detection of a valid end-of-discharge voltage
(V
EDVF
) and is low following the next application
of a valid charge.
DQ
Serial I/O pin
This is an open-drain bidirectional pin.
REF
Voltage reference output for regulator
REF provides a voltage reference output for
an optional micro-regulator.
V
CC
Supply voltage input
V
SS
Ground
2
bq2010

Functional Description
General Operation
The bq2010 determines battery capacity by monitoring
the amount of charge input to or removed from a re
chargeable battery. The bq2010 measures discharge and
charge currents, estimates self-discharge, monitors the
battery for low-battery voltage thresholds, and compen
sates for temperature and charge/discharge rates. The
charge measurement derives from monitoring the voltage
across a small-value series sense resistor between the
negative battery terminal and ground. The available bat
tery charge is determined by monitoring this voltage over
time and correcting the measurement for the environ
mental and operating conditions.
Figure 1 shows a typical battery pack application of the
bq2010 using the LED display capability as a chargestate indicator. The bq2010 can be configured to display
capacity in either a relative or an absolute display mode.
The relative display mode uses the last measured dis
-
charge capacity of the battery as the battery “full” refer
ence. The absolute display mode uses the programmed
full count (PFC) as the full reference, forcing each seg
ment of the display to represent a fixed amount of
charge. A push-button display feature is available for
momentarily enabling the LED display.
The bq2010 monitors the charge and discharge currents
as a voltage across a sense resistor (see R
S
in Figure 1).
A filter between the negative battery terminal and the
SR pin may be required if the rate of change of the bat
-
tery current is too great.
3
bq2010
FG201001.eps
SEG6/PROG
6
SEG5/PROG
5
SEG4/PROG
4
SEG3/PROG
3
SEG2/PROG
2
SEG1/PROG
1
SR
DISP
SB
V
CC
REF
bq2010
Gas Gauge IC
LCOM
V
SS
EMPTY
DQ
V
CC
C1
0.1 F
µ
Q1
ZVNL110A
R
1
R
S
RB
1
RB
2
Load
Charger
Indicates optional.
Directly connect to VCC across 3 or 4 cells (3 to 5.6V nominal)
with a resistor and a Zener diode to limit voltage during charge.
Otherwise, R1, C1, and Q1 are needed for regulation of >4 cells.
The value of R1 depends on the number of cells.
Programming resistors (6 max.) and ESD-protection diodes are not shown.
R-C on SR ma
be required, application-specific.
V
CC
Figure 1. Battery Pack Application Diagram—LED Display

Voltage Thresholds
In conjunction with monitoring VSRfor charge/discharge
currents, the bq2010 monitors the single-cell battery
potential through the SB pin. The single-cell voltage
potential is determined through a resistor/divider net
-
work according to the following equation:
RB
RB
N
1
2
1=−
where N is the number of cells, RB
1
is connected to the
positive battery terminal, and RB
2
is connected to the
negative battery terminal. The single-cell battery volt
age is monitored for the end-of-discharge voltage (EDV)
and for maximum cell voltage (MCV). EDV threshold
levels are used to determine when the battery has
reached an “empty” state, and the MCV threshold is used
for fault detection during charging.
Two EDV thresholds for the bq2010 are fixed at:
V
EDV1
(early warning) = 1.05V
V
EDVF
(empty) = 0.95V
If V
SB
is below either of the two EDV thresholds, the associated flag is latched and remains latched, independent of V
SB
, until the next valid charge. EDV
monitoring may be disabled under certain conditions as
described in the next paragraph.
During discharge and charge, the bq2010 monitors V
SR
for various thresholds. These thresholds are used to
compensate the charge and discharge rates. Refer to the
count compensation section for details. EDV monitoring
is disabled if V
SR
≤
-250mV typical and resumes
1
2
second
after V
SR
> -250mV.
EMPTY Output
The EMPTY output switches to high impedance when
V
SB<VEDVF
and remains latched until a valid charge
occurs. The bq2010 also monitors V
SB
relative to V
MCV
,
2.25V. V
SB
falling from above V
MCV
resets the device.
Reset
The bq2010 recognizes a valid battery whenever VSBis
greater than 0.1V typical. V
SB
rising from below 0.25V
or falling from above 2.25V resets the device. Reset can
also be accomplished with a command over the serial
port as described in the Reset Register section.
Temperature
The bq2010 internally determines the temperature in
10°C steps centered from -35°C to +85°C. The tempera
ture steps are used to adapt charge and discharge rate
compensations, self-discharge counting, and available
charge display translation. The temperature range is
available over the serial port in 10°C increments as
shown below:
Layout Considerations
The bq2010 measures the voltage differential between
the SR and V
SS
pins. VOS(the offset voltage at the SR
pin) is greatly affected by PC board layout. For optimal
results, the PC board layout should follow the strict rule
of a single-point ground return. Sharing high-current
ground with small signal ground causes undesirable
noise on the small signal nodes. Additionally:
n
The capacitors (SB and VCC) should be placed as
close as possible to the SB and V
CC
pins, respectively,
and their paths to V
SS
should be as short as possible.
A high-quality ceramic capacitor of 0.1µf is
recommended for V
CC
.
n
The sense resistor capacitor should be placed as close
as possible to the SR pin.
n
The sense resistor (R
SNS
) should be as close as
possible to the bq2010.
4
bq2010
TMPGG (hex) Temperature Range
0x < -30°C
1x -30°C to -20°C
2x -20°C to -10°C
3x -10°C to 0°C
4x 0°C to 10°C
5x 10°C to 20°C
6x 20°C to 30°C
7x 30°C to 40°C
8x 40°C to 50°C
9x 50°C to 60°C
Ax 60°C to 70°C
Bx 70°C to 80°C
Cx > 80°C

Gas Gauge Operation
The operational overview diagram in Figure 2 illustrates
the operation of the bq2010. The bq2010 accumulates a
measure of charge and discharge currents, as well as an
estimation of self-discharge. Charge and discharge cur
rents are temperature and rate compensated, whereas
self-discharge is only temperature compensated.
The main counter, Nominal Available Charge (NAC),
represents the available battery capacity at any given
time. Battery charging increments the NAC register,
while battery discharging and self-discharge decrement
the NAC register and increment the DCR (Discharge
Count Register).
The Discharge Count Register (DCR) is used to update
the Last Measured Discharge (LMD) register only if a
complete battery discharge from full to empty occurs
without any partial battery charges. Therefore, the
bq2010 adapts its capacity determination based on the
actual conditions of discharge.
The battery's initial capacity is equal to the Programmed
Full Count (PFC) shown in Table 2. Until LMD is updated,
NAC counts up to but not beyond this threshold during
subsequent charges. This approach allows the gas gauge to
be charger-independent and compatible with any type of
charge regime.
1.
Last Measured Discharge (LMD) or learned
battery capacity:
LMD is the last measured discharge capacity of the
battery. On initialization (application of V
CC
or bat
tery replacement), LMD = PFC. During subsequent
discharges, the LMD is updated with the latest
measured capacity in the Discharge Count Register
(DCR) representing a discharge from full to below
EDV1. A qualified discharge is necessary for a ca
pacity transfer from the DCR to the LMD register.
The LMD also serves as the 100% reference thresh
old used by the relative display mode.
2.
Programmed Full Count (PFC) or initial bat
tery capacity:
The initial LMD and gas gauge rate values are pro
grammed by using PROG
1
–PROG4. The PFC also
provides the 100% reference for the absolute dis
play mode. The bq2010 is configured for a given ap
plication by selecting a PFC value from Table 2.
The correct PFC may be determined by multiplying
the rated battery capacity in mAh by the sense re
sistor value:
Battery capacity (mAh)*sense resistor (Ω) =
PFC (mVh)
Selecting a PFC slightly less than the rated capacity for absolute mode provides capacity above the
full reference for much of the battery's life.
5
bq2010
FG201002.eps
Rate and
Temperature
Compensation
Temperature
Compensation
Charge
Current
Discharge
Current
Self-Discharge
Timer
Temperature
Translation
Nominal
Available
Charge
(NAC)
Last
Measured
Discharged
(LMD)
Discharge
Count
Register
(DCR)
<
Qualified
Transfer
+
Rate and
Temperature
Compensation
Rate and
Temperature
Compensation
Temperature Step,
Other Data
+
--
+
Inputs
Main Counters
and Capacity
Reference (LMD)
Outputs
Serial
Port
Chip-Controlled
Available Charge
LED Display
Figure 2. Operational Overview

Example: Selecting a PFC Value
Given:
Sense resistor = 0.1
Ω
Number of cells = 6
Capacity = 2200mAh, NiCd battery
Current range = 50mA to 2A
Absolute display mode
Serial port only
Self-discharge =
C
64
Voltage drop over sense resistor = 5mV to 200mV
Therefore:
2200mAh*0.1Ω= 220mVh
Select:
PFC = 33792 counts or 211mVh
PROG
1
= float
PROG
2
= float
PROG
3
= float
PROG
4
= low
PROG
5
= float
PROG
6
= float
The initial full battery capacity is 211mVh
(2110mAh) until the bq2010 “learns” a new capac
ity with a qualified discharge from full to EDV1.
6
bq2010
PROG
x
Pro-
grammed
Full
Count
(PFC)
PROG
4
= L PROG4= Z
Units
1 2 PROG3 = H PROG3 = Z PROG3 = L PROG3 = H PROG3 = Z PROG3 = L
-- -
Scale =
1/80
Scale =
1/160
Scale =
1/320
Scale =
1/640
Scale =
1/1280
Scale =
1/2560
mVh/
count
H H 49152 614 307 154 76.8 38.4 19.2 mVh
H Z 45056 563 282 141 70.4 35.2 17.6 mVh
H L 40960 512 256 128 64.0 32.0 16.0 mVh
Z H 36864 461 230 115 57.6 28.8 14.4 mVh
Z Z 33792 422 211 106 53.0 26.4 13.2 mVh
Z L 30720 384 192 96.0 48.0 24.0 12.0 mVh
L H 27648 346 173 86.4 43.2 21.6 10.8 mVh
L Z 25600 320 160 80.0 40.0 20.0 10.0 mVh
L L 22528 282 141 70.4 35.2 17.6 8.8 mVh
VSR equivalent to 2
counts/sec. (nom.)
90 45 22.5 11.25 5.6 2.8 mV
Table 2. bq2010 Programmed Full Count mVh Selections
Pin
Connection
PROG
5
Self-Discharge Rate
PROG
6
Display Mode
DISP
Display State
H Disabled
Absolute
NAC = PFC on reset
LED disabled
Z
NAC
64
Absolute
NAC = 0 on reset
LED-enabled on discharge or charge
when equivalent |V
SRO
|≥4mV
L
NAC
47
Relative
NAC = 0 on reset
LED on
Note: PROG5and PROG6states are independent.
Table 1. bq2010 Programming