LTC4150
APPLICATIONS INFORMATION
INT, POL and CLR
Interfacing to INT, POL, CLR and SHDN
INT asserts low each time the LTC4150 measures a unit
of charge. At the same time, POL is latched to indicate
the polarity of the charge unit. The integrator and counter
continuerunning,sothemicrocontrollermustserviceand
clear the interrupt before another unit of charge accumu-
lates. Otherwise, one measurement will be lost. The time
available between interrupts is the reciprocal of
The LTC4150 operates directly from the battery, while in
most cases the microcontroller supply comes from some
separate, regulatedsource. ThisposesnoproblemforINT
and POL because they are open-drain outputs and can
be pulled up to any voltage 9V or less, regardless of the
voltage applied to the LTC4150’s V .
DD
CLR and SHDN inputs require special attention. To drive
them, the microcontroller or external logic must generate
a minimum logic high level of 1.9V. The maximum input
Equation 2:
1
GVF •⏐VSENSE
level for these pins is V + 0.3V. If the microcontroller’s
Time per INT Assertion =
(9)
DD
⏐
supply is more than this, resistive dividers must be used
on CLR and SHDN. The schematic in Figure 6 shows an
At 50mV full scale, the minimum time available is 596ms.
To be conservative and accommodate for small, unex-
pectedexcursionsabovethe50mVsensevoltagelimit,the
microcontroller should process the interrupt and polarity
information and clear INT within 500ms.
application with INT driving CLR and microcontroller V
CC
> V . The resistive dividers on CLR and SHDN keep the
DD
voltages at these pins within the LTC4150’s V range.
DD
Choose R2 and R1 so that:
(R1 + R2) ≥ 50R
(12)
(13)
L
Toggling CLR low for at least 20μs resets INT high and
unlatchesPOL.SincetheLTC4150’sintegratorandcounter
operate independently of the INT and POL latches, no
charge information is lost during the latched period or
while CLR is low. Charge/discharge information contin-
ues to accumulate during those intervals and accuracy
is unaffected.
R1
1.9V ≤
VCC ≤ VDD (Minimum)
R1+R2
Equation 13 also applies to the selection of R3 and R4.
The minimum V is the lowest supply to the LTC4150
DD
when the battery powering it is at its lowest discharged
voltage.
Once cleared, INT idles in a high state and POL indicates
real-timepolarityofthebatterycurrent.POLhighindicates
charge flowing into the battery and low indicates charge
flowing out. Indication of a polarity change requires at
least:
When the battery is removed in any application, the CLR
and SHDN inputs are unpredictable. INT and POL outputs
may be erratic and should be ignored until after the bat-
tery is replaced.
If desired, the simple logic of Figure 4 may be used to
derive separate charge and discharge pulse trains from
INT and POL.
2
tPOL
=
(10)
GVF •1024 •⏐VSENSE
⏐
where V
is the smallest sense voltage magnitude
SENSE
CHARGE
INT
before and after the polarity change.
CLR
Open-drain outputs POL and INT can sink I = 1.6mA
OL
LTC4150
at V = 0.5V. The minimum pull-up resistance for these
OL
DISCHARGE
pins should be:
POL
R > (V – 0.5)/1.6mA
(11)
L
CC
4150 F04
where V is the logic supply voltage. Because speed isn’t
Figure 4. Unravelling Polarity—
Separate Charge and Discharge Outputs
CC
an issue, pull-up resistors of 10k or higher are adequate.
4150fc
9