MediaTek Inc. has announced Pump Express, a proprietary approach to the rapid charging of smartphones and tablet computers and it is has the backing of leading PMIC vendor Dialog Semiconductor plc.
Pump Express relies on chips provided by Dialog Semiconductor plc, in particular the iW1680 that provides digital primary-side control inside the ac/dc wall charger. When incorporated into a mobile device's power management integrated circuit (PMIC) and DC wall charger, Pump Express cuts charging times by about 50 percent, according to MediaTek.
Pump Express works by allowing a mobile device to negotiate with the DC wall charger the initial voltage required to recharge the battery, based on its level of charge. This lowers the overall system cost by eliminating the need for an input buck converter in the phone.
The iW1680 chip supports power adapters up to 7.5W, with no-load power consumption of less than 30mW. Communication between the phone and iW1680 is through the Vbus supply line. Voltage scaling is digitally managed on the primary side of the transformer in the AC/DC adapter by the iW1680, which analyses the signal of the Vbus and scales its output voltage accordingly. The iW1680 comes in a 6-pin SOT23 package. Protection features include built-in output short-circuit, and output overvoltage, output over-current and over-temperature protection.
"The long wait while a battery recharges has been a persistent inconvenience for smartphone and tablet users," said Jeffrey Ju, general manager of MediaTek's smartphone business unit. Ju describe Pump Express as a "simple and effective way to bring fast-charging technology to market."
MediaTek Pump Express technology is expected to be available in commercial devices by the first half of 2014.
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