The BQ25601 monitors the internal junction temperature T_J to avoid overheat of the chip and limits the IC surface temperature in buck mode. When the internal junction temperature exceeds thermal regulation limit (110°C), the device lowers down the charge current. During thermal regulation, the actual charging current is usually below the programmed battery charging current. Therefore, termination is disabled, the safety timer runs at half the clock rate, and the status register THERM_STAT bit goes high.

Additionally, the device has thermal shutdown to turn off the converter and BATFET when IC surface temperature exceeds T_SHUT(160°C). The fault register CHRG_FAULT is set to 1 and an INT is asserted to the host. The BATFET and converter is enabled to recover when IC temperature is T_{SHUT_HYS} (30°C) below T_SHUT(160°C).