IC monitors power, current and voltage

The MAX44299 low-side current-, voltage- and power-monitoring IC from Maxim Integrated is in stock at Mouser Electronics.

Along with power, current and voltage monitoring, the IC offers reference with precise measurement and programmable current sensing of full-scale voltages of 5mV, 10mV and 20mV.

With its wide single-supply voltage range, from 3V to 5.5V, the MAX44299 enables simple sharing of supplies with either an analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) or a microcontroller, and is suitable for improving measurement quality while saving cost and space in a variety of power-monitoring applications.

The MAX44299 IC offers instantaneous power with accurate power measurement of less than 1.1 per cent total error. It features three outputs, all of which are scaled to a full-scale current of 100μA.

The device's reference output enables an additional output current of 100μA, which engineers can set as a reference voltage for an ADC being used to measure power, voltage and current signals. Having the MAX44299 use currents rather than voltage to convey the measured signals to the ADC also avoids any errors caused by voltage drops across the parasitic resistance of the PCB — a significant factor for high-current systems.

The 16-bump, 2.4 × 2.4mm MAX44299 IC is specified at a temperature range from 0 to +85°C and is suited for many power-monitoring applications, including power-monitoring and -management data centre and telecom systems, renewable energy systems and smart battery packs and chargers.

The IC is supported by the MAX44299EVKIT evaluation kit, also available from Mouser. The evaluation kit is preconfigured with the CSA full-scale input voltage range (V_SENSE) of 10mV and 100µA of output current ranges, and can be reconfigured to 10mV/5mV of full-scale V_SENSE or 50µA of output current.