with Steve Knoth, Senior Product Marketing Engineer, Power Products

The LTC4425 is a constant-current/constant-voltage linear charger designed to charge a 2-cell supercap stack from either a Li-Ion/Polymer battery, a USB port, or a 2.7V to 5.5V current-limited supply. The part operates as an ideal diode with an extremely low 50mΩ on-resistance making it suitable for high peak-power/low average power applications. The LTC4425 charges the output capacitors to an externally programmed output voltage in LDO mode at a constant charge current, or to VIN in normal mode with a smart charge current profile to limit the inrush current until the VIN to VOUT differential is less than 250mV. In addition the LTC4425 can be set to clamp the output voltage to 4.9V or 5.4V.