nPM1304 PMIC is a complement to Nordic’s award-winning nPM1300 PMIC, providing a highly integrated ultra-low power solution and precise battery gauge for smart rings, body sensors, and other small battery applications.
Nordic Semiconductor has launched the new nPM1304 power management IC (PMIC). The nPM1304 inherits the successful concept of the nPM1300, providing an ideal solution for space-constrained applications that require small batteries. The energy budget for small batteries is extremely tight, and all functions must operate at the lowest possible power consumption.
The industry’s first ultra-low power precise battery gauge for small battery products, the nPM1304 PMIC, offers unique system management features and accurate battery gauging for low-power and size-constrained applications. Nordic’s unique algorithm-based battery gauging method utilizes voltage, current, and temperature monitoring, combined with a mathematical battery model to estimate the battery’s state of charge, achieving accuracy comparable to dedicated gauging devices like coulomb counters, but without incurring additional power consumption and inherent error accumulation. Nordic leads the way in providing gauging accuracy that meets today’s product user expectations while fitting within small battery energy budgets.
Dedicated gauging devices can consume up to 50µA in active mode and 7µA in sleep mode. For example, for a product with an average current consumption of 200µA, traditional gauging methods take up an unacceptable proportion of the total energy budget. However, Nordic’s solution consumes only 8µA in active mode, zero in sleep mode, and provides accurate battery state estimation without significantly shortening battery life.
Supports Battery Charging
The nPM1304 features a linear charging module that can charge single-cell lithium-ion, lithium polymer, and lithium iron phosphate batteries, supporting charging currents from 4 to 100 mA and programmable termination voltages from 3.5 to 4.65 V. This battery charger includes automatic thermal regulation and programmable settings for the maximum temperature of the chip during charging.
Designed for Next-Generation Applications
The nPM1304 is suitable for all end products equipped with small rechargeable batteries, including smart rings, sports performance trackers, and personal health monitoring devices.
Geir Kjosavik, PMIC Product Director at Nordic Semiconductor, stated: “The demand for compact interconnected sensor devices is growing rapidly. Our customers in the consumer electronics and healthcare sectors are continually pushing the limits of small-sized devices. The nPM1304 provides them with a groundbreaking solution—an ultra-low power precise estimation of remaining battery life—that the market has been eagerly awaiting.”
The nPM1304 powers Nordic’s ultra-low power nRF52, nRF53, and nRF54 series system-on-chips (SoCs) and other microcontrollers (MCUs), optimizing for maximum efficiency and compact size.
Single-Chip Integration of Comprehensive System Functions
The nPM1304 includes the same system functions as the nPM1300 PMIC. In addition to battery charging and gauging, it also includes two ultra-efficient buck converters, two load switches/low-dropout (LDO) regulators, five GPIOs, and three LED drivers. It features a compatible I2C two-wire interface (TWI) that easily configures a range of advanced system management functions, including integrated hard reset functionality via one or two buttons, precise battery gauging, system-level watchdog, power failure warning, and boot failure recovery. It integrates circuits that would typically require five or more discrete components into a single chip, thereby reducing the bill of materials (BoM) for the final product.
Get Samples
Please contact Nordic’s sales department to participate in the early sample trial program.
About Nordic Semiconductor
Nordic Semiconductor provides ultra-low power wireless connectivity solutions for smart connected products. From hardware to the cloud, Nordic helps major brands create high-performance, low-power devices in the consumer electronics, healthcare, and industrial automation sectors.