News & Events
Intersil Launches World's Most Accurate Multi-cell Li-ion Battery Charger Maximizing Battery Performance While Providing the Highest Safety

-- Provides automatic source selection and industry's only DC source detection~-- Delivers industry's highest performance and lowest overall solution cost for notebook PCs and all other portable devices

MILPITAS, CA, June 8, 2004 – Intersil Corporation (NASDAQ: ISIL), a world leader in the design and manufacture of high performance analog solutions, today announced the release of the ISL6253, the world’s most advanced multi-cell Li-ion battery charger. The ISL6253 leads the industry in raising the standards of performance and cost savings to the next level for notebook PCs and all other portable devices that run on multi-cell Li-ion or Li-polymer battery packs. The features and performance packed into this new charger IC delivers increased battery capacity and life as well as improved charging safety and cost savings over current and legacy solutions. The enhanced performance of the ISL6253 over competing devices even enables the use of smaller and lower cost AC adapters.

“To say that we are excited about the new ISL6253 battery charger IC is definitely an understatement,” said Dean Henderson, director of Intersil’s Portable Power Products. “Our designers painstakingly took the time to analyze the application and current state of the art in battery charging to identify key areas that needed to be improved to maximize battery performance, improve safety and reduce implementation costs. The result is the ISL6253 delivers on these issues and is head and shoulders above all current solutions.”

The superior battery performance, improved safety and reduced implementation costs resulting from the use of the ISL6253 are largely attributed to this charger’s industry-leading accuracy over an extended temperature range of –10 to 100 degrees C. Over this temperature range, the ISL6253’s voltage regulation accuracy remains within +/-0.5 percent, charge current accuracy stays within +/-4 percent and source current monitoring accuracy resides in the narrow +/-3 percent range. These combined levels of accuracy are unmatched by any other solution and provide the best handling of the battery under charge. This results in faster, more complete charging under safer conditions. System run time and battery life are also extended because of the very accurate handling.

Current supplied from the AC adapter, or source, is precisely monitored by the ISL6253 and charging current is automatically and rapidly reduced when a user-programmable limit is reached. Tighter source current monitoring accuracy insures that the maximum amount of current is available for charging when the system is operating near the limit. This accuracy allows the designer the descretion of using a smaller and less costly AC adapter to complete the charging solution. This may also allow the use of a less costly adapter that does not use power factor correction. What is more, source current transient response time is an order of magnitude faster than competing devices. This quick response minimizes transients battery voltage and current transients that can cause a system crash due to pack shutdown or AC adapter overload conditions.

The ISL6253 contributes further to safety with its DC source power detection capability. This charger is the only device on the market that is able to recognize the connection of a DC source, such as is available on commercial aircraft, and respond by signaling the host to halt charging for enhanced battery safety. The ISL6253 automatically selects between AC/DC and battery power as needed.

6253 Technical Summary

• Industry’s most accurate charging for 2, 3 or 4 Li-ion cells
  • Maximizes battery capacity/life, minimizes charge time, improves safety and reduces costs
  • +/-0.5 percent voltage regulation accuracy
  • +/-4 percent charging current accuracy
  • +/-3 percent source current monitoring accuracy
• Industry’s fastest input current limit response – less than 100 us
• Industry’s only charger with DC power present indicator – aircraft power capable
• 7 to 25 V input voltage range for wide application flexibility
• Up to 17.6 V battery voltage set point
• Programmable charger current limit, adapter current limit and charge voltage
• Trickle charge mode when each cell is below 3.0 V
• Automatic power source selection – MOSFET control for higher efficiency over use of diode
• AC adapter present indicator
• Battery discharge MOSFET control
• Thermal shutdown
• 28-pad 5 X 5 mm quad flat no-lead (QFN) package for space and thermal efficiency
• 28-lead QSOP package also available
• Pb-free packaging

6253 Pricing and Availability
The ISL6253 is available now. The suggested resale price in 1000-unit quantities for the ISL6253HRZ (QFN) is $2.36 and is $2.26 for the ISL6253HAZ (QSOP). About Intersil
Intersil Corporation, a NASDAQ 100 Index company, is a leader in the design and manufacture of high performance analog semiconductors. The company’s products address three of the industry’s fastest growing markets: flat panel displays, optical storage (CD and DVD recordable) and power management. Intersil products include power management devices for battery management, hot-swap and hot-plug controllers, linear regulators, supervisory ICs, switching DC-DC regulators and power MOSFET drivers; optical storage laser diode drivers; DSL line drivers; video and high performance operational amplifiers; data converters; interface ICs; analog switches and multiplexers; crosspoint switches; voice-over-IP devices; and ICs for military, space and rad-hard applications. For more information about Intersil or to find out how to become a member of our winning team, visit the company’s web site and career page at www.intersil.com.

This release may include "forward looking statements" that are subject to risks and uncertainties. For information identifying economic, political, climatic, currency, regulatory, technological, competitive and some other important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward looking statements, see Intersil’s Safe Harbor Forward Looking Statement disclaimer found at http://www.intersil.com/legal.asp, as well as Intersil’s SEC filings as updated from time to time, found at http://www.sec.gov. All trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.