Power Bank Portable Battery Charger

By: Ganesh Raja and Pushek Madaan

With an increasing number of features, mobile devices like smart phones tablets etc are requiring more
power. To extend operating life, manufacturers try to use bigger batteries but are limited because of
the weight and size. To provide users additional power when their devices are running low, many users
are learning to rely upon power banks, a portable energy source that can be carried in a pocket or
backpack. Power banks store energy in an internal Lithium Ion battery and can charge the mobile
devices.
In this article, we will discuss the basics of a power bank, various specifications and features and how it
can be implemented using a system-on-chip.
Figure-1 shows the various parts of a power bank. The power bank has a switch to turn on the output
and charge a mobile device. The status LEDs indicate the amount of charge left in the power bank and
also indicate charging/discharging operation. A Micro-USB connector is used to connect the charging
source to charge the internal battery. The power bank can either be connected to a PC/Laptop or to a
wall power source to charge the battery. A USB-A connector is used to connect the mobile device for
charging.

Figure 1: Power Bank

Figure-2 shows the high level block diagram of the power bank. The main component of the power bank
is a Lithium Ion battery that stores energy to charge the mobile devices. The battery is first connected
to a battery protection circuit that continuously monitors the battery voltage and current and
disconnects the battery in case of various events like over charge, over discharge, over load and short
circuit.

POWER BANK

STATUS LEDs
SWITCH

CONTROLLER

VLOAD / ILOAD
ON/OFF

CHARGING
CIRCUIT
BUCK
CONVERTER

IBAT

BATTERY PROTECTION
CIRCUIT

BOOST
CONVERTER

USB-A

Wall power or
Laptop USB

MicroUSB

VBAT

Load

BATTERY

Figure 2: Block diagram of Power Bank

The input voltage from the Micro-USB connector is fed to a charge controller. This usually is a buck
converter that converts the 5V input voltage into either a constant current or constant voltage to charge
the Lithium Ion battery.
The boost converter converts the battery voltage which can range from 3.0V to 4.2V to 5V which is
used to charge the external mobile devices.
A microcontroller performs control functions like turning on the boost converter when the switch is
pressed, measuring the battery voltage and controlling the LEDs to indicate state of charge and turn off
the boost converter when the external mobile device stops drawing current.
Now let us take a look at each of these blocks.
Charge Controller
The charge controller implements the charging algorithm to charge the internal Lithium Ion battery. It is
usually based on a buck converter topology.
The charging process passes through several stages to ensure battery is charged to its full capacity; but
at the same time the battery is charged safely. During these stages, the battery has to be charged using
either a Constant Current (CC mode) or a Constant Voltage (CV mode). Figure-3 shows the various stages
involved in charging a Lithium Ion battery.

Figure 3: CC-CV battery charging profile

Battery Protection Circuit

Lithium ion batteries are extremely hazardous if not handled properly. When the voltage of the battery
is allowed to rise beyond 4.2V, the battery gets hot. There have been numerous incidents where lithium
ion batteries have caught fire because of poor protection logic. Thus, from safety point of view, battery
protection becomes extremely important. The battery protection circuit implements some or all of the
following protections.

Over charge protection Disables charging when battery voltage goes above a safe threshold
Over discharge protection Disables discharging when battery voltages goes below a threshold
Short circuit protection Disables discharging if a short circuit is detected
Temperature protection Disables charging and discharging if the battery temperature goes above
or below pre-determined thresholds.

Boost Converter
Lithium ion battery operating voltage typically ranges between 3.0V to 4.2V and almost all of the mobile
phones available need 5V for the charging. The boost converter steps up the 3.0V to 4.2V battery
voltage to 5V required to charge the mobile devices.
Controller
The controller in a typical power bank performs basic house-keeping tasks. Some of the tasks performed
by controller in a power bank are as follows:

Detect if the switch has been pressed and enable output of the boost converter.

Measure the current drawn by the load and turn off the boost converter when the load stops
drawing current.
Measure the battery voltage and drive the status LEDs to display battery level during charging and
discharging.

In the following section, well have a look at how to implement power bank using SoC (System On Chip)
but before getting into details of implementation, let us have a quick look of some of the advantages
offered by SoCs over conventional microcontrollers.
SoCs enable integration by providing peripherals like PWMs, Timers, ADCs, Comparators, Amplifiers and
many more all within one device. One such very popular SoC available is the PSoC 1 from Cypress
Semiconductors. This device provides configurable digital and analog blocks which can be used to
implement most of the digital and analog functionalities. Using such SoCs, design of a complicated
system like power bank becomes extremely simple. These SoCs can integrate all the smart functions
within the controller, leaving only discrete components like MOSFETs, Inductors, Diodes and Capacitors
off the chip, thus giving high control over system performance and BOM reduction. Well now have a
look at detailed implementation of each block discussed in the previous part.
SoC Implementation
Charger
As discussed in the earlier section, a charger should implement both constant current (CC) and constant
voltage (CV) control. To implement the Li-Ion charging profile, following functional blocks are required.
1. A switching regulator that can control either the output current or output voltage
2. Battery parameter (Voltage, current, temperature) measuring circuit
3. Charging algorithm (for implementing CC-CV profile)
This is shown in block diagram below (figure-4):
Switching
Regulator
Supply

charging current

Charging
Algorithm

Battery
parameter
measurement

Battery Pack

Figure 4: Block diagram of a Li-ion battery charger

Figure-5 shows the switching regulator implemented using a buck converter topology. The buck
converter is formed by the MOSFET T, Inductor L, Diode D and Capacitor C. R1 and R2 form a potential
divider to measure the battery voltage and RS is the shunt that is used to measure the battery current.
The output of the switching regulator is controlled by the duty cycle of the PWM. To implement
constant current output, the PWM duty cycle is controlled based on the current measured through RS.
To implement constant voltage control, the PWM duty cycle is controlled based on the voltage
measured through R1 and R2.
L
VSupply

T
R1
Li-Ion
Battery

PWM

Gate Driver
R2
D

Rs

Voltage
Feedback

Current
Feedback

Figure 5: Switching buck regulator topology

Battery parameters measurement circuit: Figure-6 shows the circuit to measure all the battery
parameters viz., voltage, current and temperature. R1 and R2 provide the battery voltage and RS
provides the battery current. The battery temperature is measured using a thermistor RT. Rref and RT
form a potential divider. With Rref being constant, the value of RT can be calculated by measuring the
voltage from this potential divider. Once the value of RT is calculated, the temperature can be easily
calculated either by using a lookup table method, or by using Steinhart-Hart method.
Each of these signals requires a different gain. SoCs being flexible, make it possible to change the gain
of the amplifier during run time.
Once the battery voltage, current and temperature are measured, the CPU implements the charging
algorithm to either control the output current or output voltage of the switching regulator by controlling
the duty cycle of the PWM.

Current control circuit

VSupply

SoC
PWM
R1
Li-Ion
Battery

Voltage
CPU

ADC

PGA

Temperature

R2

Vbias
Vss

Rref

RT

Current
Rs

Figure 6: Measurement using single ended ADC

Charging algorithm:
The CPU implements the charging algorithm by reading the battery voltage, current and temperature
and implements the following charging profile:
1. During main charging, the CPU measures the battery current and adjusts the PWM duty cycle to
keep the current constant. At the same time, the CPU monitors the battery voltage to
determine if the battery has reached the full charge threshold.
2. Once the battery reaches the full charge threshold, the CPU measures the battery voltage and
adjusts the PWM duty cycle to keep the battery voltage constant. At the same time, the CPU
monitors the battery current and terminates the charging when the current goes below the
termination current threshold.
The constant voltage or constant current control can be implemented using any of the digital control
methods like P, PI or PID, depending on the system requirements and the available CPU bandwidth.
ADC and PWM parameters: Some of the parameters that need to be considered during the design are
the ADC resolution, ADC accuracy and PWM resolution.
ADC resolution defines how precisely you can measure the feedback signals. This in turn will have an
impact on the ripple on the battery current and battery voltage.
ADC accuracy defines how accurately you measure the feedback signals. For Li-Ion batteries, the battery
voltage measurement is very critical. The maximum tolerance allowed for the full charge threshold is
4.2V + 50mV. This will require an ADC accuracy of at least 0.5%.

PWM resolution defines how precisely you can control the output voltage or current and this also
affects the ripple on the output voltage or current. Higher the resolution, lower the ripple. However,
there is a limit to how high the PWM resolution can be. Higher the resolution, lower is the output
frequency of the PWM which results in bigger inductors and capacitors. As power banks get more and
more compact, size is an important design issue. So, a tradeoff has to be made between the size and
PWM resolution.
Charging Source Detection
Auto detection of charging source It is possible to charge the internal Lithium ion battery of the power
bank through various sources like PC / Laptop or wall powered adaptors. Before we dive further on
this, let us have a look at various charging sources as defined in Battery Charging Specifications BC1.2
SDP (Standard Downstream Port): This is the regular USB port present in desktop PCs and laptops. It
can provide a maximum current of 500mA with enumeration and 100mA without enumeration. If a
device tries to draw more than 500mA of current, this could lead to BSoD(Blue Screen of Death) or port
failure.
CDP (Charging Downstream Port): This is a special USB port present in some PCs. This USB port can
provide a current of upto 1.5A to peripherals.
DCP (Dedicated Charging Port): This is an USB port meant only for charging and does not perform any
communication functions. This port can supply upto 1.5A of current to a charging device.
It is important to distinguish between the type of charging source the power bank has been connected
and draw the appropriate power. BC1.2 spec defines a method to detect the type of charging source
(SDP, DCP or CDP) that the power bank is connected to.
I.

II.

Primary Detection: Connect 0.6V on D+ line and measure signal on D- line. If signal on D- line is
less than 0.4V, then we are connected to SDP. If the signal is greater than 0.4V then we are
connected to either CDP or DCP and we need to perform secondary detection to determine
between CDP or DCP.
Secondary Detection: Connect 0.6V on D- line and measure signal on D+ line, if signal on D+ line
is greater than 0.4V then it is DCP else it is CDP.

The above logic may be implemented using the DACs and the ADC in SoCs. Figure-7 provides the block
diagram for charging source detection. Two DACs are used to generate the 0.6V bias for the D+ and Dlines and the voltage on the other line is measured by the ADC. Once the type of charging source is
detected, the maximum charging current drawn by the charger section can be set.

VSupply

SoC

DAC DDAC D+

VBus
DD+
Gnd

PGA

CPU

ADC

Figure 7: Charging source detection

Boost Converter
The Boost Converter converts the battery voltage to a constant 5V output to charge the external mobile
device. As the efficiency of the boost converter is required to be >85% under full load condition, a
synchronous boost converter is preferred in power banks. Figure-8 shows a synchronous boost
topology. A brief description of the boost converter is given below.
L
D
T2
R1
Li-ion
Battery

Rs1

PWM1

T1
Gate Driver

PWM2

Load

C
Gate Driver
Rs2

Current
R2
Feedback

Voltage
Feedback

Figure 8: Synchronous boost converter topology

PWM1 and PWM2 are out of phase signals that drive the low side and high side MOSFETs of the boost
converter. When T1 is on, current flows through the inductor L1 and the inductor stores energy. When
T1 is turned off (and T2 is turned on), the current through the inductor collapses, which in turn produces
a back emf across the inductor. This back emf in series with the battery voltage presents a higher
voltage at the drain of T1. At this state, T2 is on and charges the capacitor with the higher voltage. By
controlling the duty cycle of T1, the amount of voltage delivered to the capacitor, and hence the output
voltage can be controlled. The CPU measures the output voltage through potential divider R1/R2 and
adjusts the duty cycle of the PWM to regulate the output voltage.

Boost Converter feedback control: Figure-9 shows the feedback control circuit for the boost converter.
The CPU measures both the voltage and load current of the boost converter. Output voltage is
measured through potential divider R1/R2. The CPU implements a PI or PID control loop and adjusts the
duty cycle of the PWM. The loop response of the control loop should be fast enough to prevent
overshoot or undershoot in the output when the load current changes.
Synchronous Boost
Control Circuit

VBat

SoC

Dead Band
PWM

R1
Voltage

CPU

ADC

Load
R2

PGA
Current
Vss

Rs

Figure 9: Boost network circuit

The CPU also measures the load current from RS to implement overload cutoff and to stop the boost
converter when the external mobile device is fully charged and stops drawing current from the boost
converter.

Battery Protection
As discussed earlier, power bank application needs protection for various parameters like over charge,
over discharge, short circuit and temperature protection.
SoCs can easily implement all of the above battery protections, as the CPU measures the battery voltage
and current during the charging and discharging. However, power bank manufacturers prefer to use
dedicated battery protection circuits outside the CPU. This is to ensure that battery is always protected
even if the CPU has failed for some reason. This provides two levels of protection in power banks that
use SoCs.
As mentioned earlier, PSoC 1 is a very popular SoC which provides high integration through configurable
digital and analog resources. Figure-10 shows the block diagram of the power bank design implemented
using CY8C24423A device from PSoC 1 family.

Buck Converter circuit

Boost Converter circuit

BOOST PWM N

MUX

VSupply

ILOAD

BOOST PWM P

IBAT

BUCK PWM

VBAT

VLOAD

LOAD

BUCK
PWM

Dead Band
PWM

PGA

D+

VBAT SENSE
VLOAD SENSE

Gnd

TEMPERATURE

D-

MUX

VBus

10 BIT
SAR ADC

TO
STATUS
LEDS

USB

D-

M8C
DAC D-

RREF

THERMISTOR

DAC D-

Vref

D+

VREF

Vss

PSoC
CY8C24423A

Figure 10: Block diagram of Power Bank using integrated approach

Conclusion
Following table summarizes the advantages of implementing a power bank solution using a SoC
compared to conventional solutions based on discrete devices.

Charging source
detection
Charging current
Boost regulator
Output Power
Battery protection
Auto-load
detection
Stand by current
(System current)

System on Chip (SoC) solution

Integrated automatically detects the
charging source and configures the
charging current.
Configurable
Scalable to different output ratings.
Requires change to only the external
switching components.
Two levels of protection- SoC + Battery
protection IC
Auto detects the load and enables the
output.
< 60uA AFE is integrated, thus during
sleep AFE can be disabled and even lower
current consumption can be achieved.

Conventional solution
Not available. Fixed charging
current.
Fixed
Fixed. For changing the output
power, the complete switching
regulator circuit has to be changed
Battery protection IC
Not available
200uA (typical)