Texas Instruments Incorporated introduced a new bidirectional buck/boost converter with an ultra-low quiescent current (IQ) of 60 nA one-third the IQ of competing boost converters. The TPS61094 buck/boost converter integrates a buck mode for supercapacitor charging while providing ultra-low IQ, enabling engineers to extend battery life by as much as 20% when compared to commonly used hybrid-layer capacitors (HLCs). Supercapacitor charging and discharging helps support peak loads and backup power, which are important for continuous operation in battery-powered industrial applications such as smart meters, smoke detectors and video doorbells, as well as medical applications. Engineers designing battery-operated systems frequently face a common design challenge: a need to achieve high efficiency at no- or light-load conditions, in the low milliampere or microampere range. This requires power supplies to regulate their output while maintaining ultra-low supply current in the nanoampere range. The TPS61094 combines two key benefits that previously were trade-offs, the design simplicity of using an integrated buck/boost converter and the extended battery life enabled by high output current and low IQ. To learn more, read the technical article, "3 benefits of using a low-IQ buck/boost converter to extend battery life in flow meters.