So I want to charge a stack of six series-connected super capacitors from a small 10W solar panel.
The part number of the capacitors is TPLH-2R7/12WR10X30.
https://www.tecategroup.com/products/data_sheet.php?i=TPLH-2R7/12WR10X30
The part number of the solar panel is TPS-12-10W.
https://tyconsystems.com/documentation/Spec%20Sheets/TPS-W%20Solar%20Panels%20Spec%20Sheet.pdf
Like most super-capacitors, the cells are rated at 2.7V each. I want to limit the voltage one each cell to be in the range of 2.0V to 2.5V max. At first glance the cells could be mismatched in value by at least 60%. The solar panel looks like it could supply 500mA to 600mA in full sunlight. Unless properly regulated, the open-circuit voltage would rise to 21.95V.
Given the above, what is the lowest part count and lowest cost way to ensure that the voltage on each cell doesn't exceed 2.5V when the stack is charged at 700mA peak.
What I want to do is stick some sort of device in parallel with each cell to regulate their voltages. When all cells are charged I want the total voltage to be between 12V and 13.5V. The voltage on each cell should not exceed 2.5V.
I have looked into various options.
- Advanced Linear Devices Supercapacitor auto-balancing (SAB) (ALD8100xx / ALD9100xx). These are just precision threshold MOSFETs. It seems that a lot of people are using and recommending these.
- They are limited to 80mA max drain current.
- The datasheet shows that the drain-source voltage typically crosses 2.7V at around 9mA.
- This would seem to require that the capacitor cells are either well matched, or that the charging current is very low. None of which are true in my case.
- They have a 500mW power limit per part so I would need a separate regulator to take any excess power from the solar panel to keep the load voltage in regulation.
- Zener-diodes.
- I don't seem to be able to find 2.25V zener diodes with the 1 ohm or less output impedance required in this case.
- Zener didoes tend to have a lot of leakage as you approach the threshold. In my case I want the leakage to be less than 100uA worst case at a cell voltage of 2.0V.
- TL431 or similar.
- Very low leakage below threshold.
- Precise, adjustable threshold.
- Limited to 100mA. In my case I probably need to be able to shunt over 800mA to be safe.
- TL431 + power BJT.
- Very low leakage below threshold.
- Precise, adjustable threshold.
- Can sink multiple amps of current.
- Uses at least four components per cell (so 24 total for the design). I was hoping for something simpler.
Ideally there would be some sort of two terminal device that had < 50uA of leakage below 2.25V but would sink at least 1A in the 2.25V to 2.5V range. I have looked quite a bit but have not found such a device. This actually surprised me because the vast majority of super-capacitor cells are rated at 2.7V. The cells usually have very high tolerances, and it is not uncommon to want to charge them at currents beyond 1A. The only viable solution I see right now is the "TL431 + power BJT" option, but it uses 24 parts when I would rather be using six.