Drop-In Upgrade: ST Launches New Automotive Battery Management IC

STMicroelectronics has launched the L9963F, a new automotive battery-management IC designed for lithium-ion battery packs in electrical automobiles, hybrid techniques, and industrial vitality storage functions. The brand new L9963F IC is basically an improve to the corporate’s present L9963E platform, including monitoring, balancing, and purposeful security capabilities.

STMicroelectronics’ L9963F battery-management IC helps lithium-ion monitoring and balancing for EV and vitality storage techniques. 

The L9963F (datasheet linked) helps monitoring of 4 to 14 battery cells per IC and may scale to techniques containing as much as 434 series-connected cells by means of daisy-chained units. ST is concentrating on EV battery packs, 48-V techniques, UPS techniques, industrial storage, e-bikes, and e-scooters the place correct cell monitoring, synchronized measurements, and purposeful security are vital to battery reliability and automobile operation.

Totally Suitable Improve to the L9963E Platform

Slightly than introducing a completely new IC format, STMicroelectronics designed the L9963F IC as a direct alternative for the sooner L9963E. Current customers can improve their present techniques with out making any main adjustments to PCB layouts or software program.

Typical utility of the L9963F. See web page 4 of the datasheet for an enlarged picture. 

The IC screens between 4 and 14 stacked lithium-ion cells and may help bigger battery arrays by merely connecting a number of units into the present daisy chain. Working techniques can scale as much as 31 battery packs and 434 complete series-connected cells whereas additionally sustaining synchronized communication and measurement timing throughout the chain. That scalability is essential in automotive energy design as a result of battery pack assemblies differ considerably between 48-V gentle hybrids, full EV platforms, and stationary storage techniques. 

Excessive-Accuracy Monitoring and Synchronized Sampling

The L9963F integrates a 16-bit ADC with a most voltage measurement error of ±2 mV throughout a 0.5-V to 4.3-V vary. STMicroelectronics has additionally carried out absolutely synchronized present and voltage sampling with 0-µs desynchronization delay between samples, which helps enhance state-of-charge calculations, balancing accuracy, and fault detection in bigger battery techniques. The L9963F will even embrace coulomb counting for pack present monitoring and overcurrent detection throughout each ignition-on and ignition-off circumstances.

Block diagram of the L9963F. See web page 5 of the datasheet for an enlarged picture.

Communication between stacked L9963F units makes use of a 2.66-Mbps remoted serial interface with lower than 4-µs latency between the primary and thirty first system in a series. ST says full conversion and readout instances stay beneath 16 ms even in techniques monitoring as much as 434 cells. The L9963F additionally helps passive balancing currents as much as 200 mA per cell in each regular and silent-balancing modes, permitting balancing features to proceed throughout low-power operation whereas minimizing battery drain.

Useful Security and Fault Safety

The L9963F provides a number of security and diagnostic options for automotive battery techniques, together with a redundant cell-measurement path with ADC swap functionality to help fault tolerance and limp-home operation. The L9963F is designed for ISO 26262 and ASIL-D techniques and consists of redundant fault reporting by means of each SPI communication and a devoted FAULT line. ST additionally built-in 9 GPIOs, help for as much as seven NTC temperature sensors, programmable balancing management, twin 5-V regulators, automated diagnostics, and hot-plug safety with out requiring exterior zener parts throughout cells.

With the brand new L9963F IC, STMicroelectronics expands its battery-management portfolio whereas holding compatibility with the sooner L9963E platform. This provides finish customers a mixture of scalable cell monitoring, synchronized sampling, remoted communication, passive balancing, and ASIL-D help that targets EVs, hybrid automobiles, and energy-storage techniques.

All photographs used courtesy of STMicroelectronics.