SCS PROJECT

NAME

- MUDIT PUROHIT

ROLL NO 51
SECTION A, ECE

Portable Battery Charger

We have seen many battery charger circuits in our previous articles like Automatic battery
charger, car battery charger, wireless mobile charger etc. But today a simple and useful of
Portable USB battery charger circuit is being explained here. You can charge your mobile phone
battery using AA batteries.
The final circuit is very small so that it can work as an emergency portable battery charger.
Almost all USB powered devices (that can be charged via USB cable) like mobile phones, iPod,
MP3 players, cameras etc. can be charged. It uses AA 1.5V batteries (even rechargeable
batteries) and can be upgraded to higher capacities.

CIRCUIT AND OVERVIEW

Components Description of Battery charger circuit

LT 1302: It is a step-up DC/DC converter by Linear Technology. The input voltage can be as low
as 2V and the output current can be up to 600mA.
USB Type A female jack: It is an USB female jack of type A and fits on any PCB. A type A male
to male (USB to microUSB) cable can be used to connect to external devices.
IN5818: It is a Schottky Diode. As the application is of switching regulator type, normal diodes
like IN4001 are not suitable. A Schottky diode have a high switching speed and very low forward
voltage drop.
L1 (10H): It is an inductor. The main function of this inductor is to hold the current and release
this current to the output capacitor. It should be able to handle a minimum current of 1A.
C2 and C3 (220F): These are power supply capacitors. They are electrolytic capacitors and are
used for eliminating any AC ripples.
C1 and C4 (0.1F): These are bypass capacitors. C1 is used to stabilize the output and short any
AC signal to ground (or filter/block unwanted noise signals).C4 is used to stabilize the internal
reference voltage of the LT1302.
AA Batteries: These are the source of power. 2 AA batteries of 1.5V each are connected in series
so that the voltage is 3V. This is given as the input supply.

Working
The heart of the battery charger circuit is LT1302, which is a step-up DC/DC converter. The
minimum allowable input to LT1302 is 2V. This input is boosted to 5V at an output current of
600mA. We are using a 3V input (using two AA batteries).
LT1302 operates in two modes: Burst mode and current mode. Burst mode operation is for
lighter loads and current mode operation is for heavy loads.
The voltage at pin 4 (which is the output voltage of the circuit that is fed back to pin 4) is
internally compared with a reference voltage of 1.24V by a comparator.
If this feedback voltage is less than the reference voltage, the internal oscillator is turned ON.
The output of this oscillator will alternately turn ON and OFF the transistor.
When Q4 is ON, there is a current built up in the inductor L1. When Q4 is OFF, the current flows
into the output capacitor C3 via the diode.

Because of the faster switching action, the diode used is a Schottky diode. As the output voltage
increases, the voltage at the feedback pin (pin 4) also increases. Once the feedback voltage
exceeds the reference voltage (plus some hysteresis of comparator), the oscillator is turned OFF
by the comparator (as its output falls low).
But in order to make LT1302 work in current mode even at light load, a resistor is connected
between pin 5 and ground (3.3K resistor as shown in the circuit). In current mode (which is the
case here), the comparator stays ON which in turn keeps the oscillator ON.
Now the switch current is limited to 1A by A2, Q2 and Q3 and is regulated by the output of the
error amplifier (A1). The output voltage will be around 4.9V.

CIRCUIT DIAGRAM

OUTPUTThis input is boosted to 5V at an output current of 600mA. We are using a 3V input (using two
AA batteries).

APPLICATIONSCan be used as a portable phone charger or even other devices that charge on the voltage output near to 5
volts and is handy too.