Epson began developing power management integrated circuits (PMICs) for hearing aids in 2016, and recently launched its new PMIC, the S1A00210B.
The new product uses a smaller coil than its wireless charging predecessor, the S1A00112B, thanks to a higher transfer frequency. The smaller coil means that the size of the hearing aid itself can be reduced.
The new PMIC can also store two types of battery charging profiles and manage the number of charging cycles, allowing it to optimize the charging method for batteries with different characteristics or those that have undergone repeated charging. This helps to shorten the charging time and extend battery life.
The new PMIC also reduces the component count with a newly integrated general-purpose power supply LDO (low-dropout regulator) that eliminates the need for a discrete power IC to supply power to a Bluetooth Low Energy chip or senser chip, which is increasingly being incorporated into hearing aids.
Integrating all the necessary power management for small electronic devices (power reception, charging, power supply, battery protection, Flash ROM) into a single chip also simplifies circuit design.