Nordic Semiconductor, a global leader in low-power wireless connectivity, is enabling customers to rapidly bring their products to commercial production through volume production of highly integrated power management ICs.

Nordic announced on the 29th that it has entered mass production of its recently launched nPM1300 Power Management IC (PMIC) and will begin supplying volume quantities through the Nordic distribution network.

The nPM1300 is currently available in a QFN package, with a Chip Scale Package (CSP) coming soon.

“The availability of volume production of the nPM1300 PMIC means that customers who have evaluated the part using the nPM1300 evaluation kit or developed products based on samples can get their projects up and running more quickly,” says Geir Kjosavik, PMIC Product Director at Nordic Semiconductor. “All customers who have taken the lead in designing with the nPM1300, which has already enjoyed great market acceptance, can now safely move into commercial production of their final devices.”

Two ultra-high-efficiency buck DC-DC converters and an LDO (Low Dr)Featuring two load switches that can also function as a voltage converter and integrated battery charging capability, the nPM1300 is an ideal solution for battery-powered applications.

It not only reduces the bill-of-materials (BoM) of the final product by integrating circuits that typically require five or more individual components into a single chip, but also includes system management functions for low-power wireless applications and accurate fuel gauge functions.

The nPM1300's fuel gauge function monitors voltage, current, and temperature based on its own proprietary algorithm, providing higher accuracy than voltage-based fuel gauges while also maintaining significantly lower power consumption of the PMIC compared to Coulomb Counter type fuel gauges.

Nordic is the first company to achieve the optimal balance between high accuracy and low power consumption without the need for pre-use battery profiling through a fuel gauge vendor.

The latest versions of the nRF Connect SDK and nRF Connect for Desktop, Nordic's development software for products, fully support the full functionality of the nPM1300 PMIC. The nRF Connect SDK also includes drivers for final production, enabling easy integration with new and existing nRF Connect SDK-based applications.

This PMIC driver integration streamlines the development process and improves the overall developer experience. Additionally, the nPM PowerUP app has been updated to include all nPM1300 features, along with an overlay export option for use with nRF Connect SDK applications, making it easier to evaluate and develop with the nPM1300. The nPM1300 is easily configured through an intuitive graphical user interface (GUI), and the configured code can then be ported to a System-on-Chip (SoC) or microcontroller for integration with application software.

The nPM1300 joins Nordic's power management portfolio, alongside the nPM1100, an ultra-small form factor PMIC for battery charging and power distribution, and the multi-rail nPM6001 for advanced applications.