Hi,
When I was searching for Battery Charger IC for Li-Ion, I came across Switching and Linear Battery chargers. Is it same as the case of regulators(switching and linear).

In cellphones which type of Battery charger IC is used. In our case USB charge option should also be given. In Linear chargers USB option is present. But in switching chargers USB option is not present.

Which one will be better option for hand held device.

regards
sharath

 

They use switchers for efficiency and space savings, plus switchers are somewhat easier to control with microcontroller. In a hand held heat is bad so if you're switcher is highly efficient you won't generate as much heat. A switcher should take up less than a linear circuit depending on how much current it will provide.

A charger is a regulator, it just has extra circuitry to keep from damaging batteries, control how it charges batteries and to detect when a battery has a problem. In Li-on batteries most battery packs have a protection chip that keeps track of the batteries state and monitors several characteristics of the battery and may have memory of it's own the charger or micro controller can query.

http://focus.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/bq29311.pdf

http://batteryuniversity.com/partone-12.htm