Innovative solar battery charger uses MPPT to help portable devices run longer
ST’s SPV1040 is a step-up DC-DC converter tailored to be used as solar battery charger for portable applications to employ Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT), an innovative technique for collecting the maximum possible energy from solar cells. It can be connected to strips of even just a few cells, allowing use in products such as portable healthcare devices, watches, calculators, wireless headsets, toys, or mobile phones. The battery charger and MPPT technology can also be used in equipment such as sensors and security cameras.
The MPPT algorithm embedded in the SPV1040 dynamically adjusts the charger’s input impedance to ensure perfect matching with the solar cell, thereby maximizing energy transfer to the battery and dramatically improving overall system efficiency. Without MPPT, changes in the solar cells caused by temperature, ageing, dirt or unit-to-unit variation can produce mismatches that significantly reduce the energy harvested.
Visit STMicroelectronics at www.stm.com.
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