Updated Pin-Compatible BMIC Supports 48/96-V Applications
STMicroelectronics’ L9963F automotive battery-management IC (BMIC) includes all of the features needed to manage lithium battery packs in hybrid-electric (HE) and full-electric (FE) vehicles, as well as industrial energy storage systems and 48/96-V applications. It’s ASIL-D-ready for use in functional-safety applications. The BMIC also brings under-the-skin improvements to the industry-proven L9963E as a fully compatible replacement that requires no hardware or software changes for existing users of the L9963 series.
The L9963F features nine GPIO pins (GPIOs) and a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI), plus a comprehensive set of fault-detection and notification functions required for ISO 26262 compliance. One device can monitor from 4 to 14 stacked cells, thereby addressing applications up to 48 V. Connecting multiple ICs permits even larger arrays of up to 31 battery packs with a total of 434 series cells.
Coulomb counting inside the L9963F supports pack overcurrent detection in both ignition on and off states. A fully redundant cell-measurement path, with ADC swap, provides enhanced safety and enables limp-home functionality.
The L9963F can take its power from the monitored battery. It integrates circuitry to generate stable internal references and ensure measurement precision, including a voltage regulator and bootstrap.
Support for cell-balancing current up to 200 mA helps safeguard battery health, and the L9963F can keep the integrated balancing-MOSFET drivers active for a timed period after entering low-power operation. This silent-balancing mode maintains protection while taking the least possible energy from the battery.
With fully synchronized current and voltage sampling and 0-µs desynchronization delay between samples, the L9963F incorporates a 16-bit voltage ADC with ±2-mV maximum error in the 0.5- to 4.3-V range. This high synchronization accuracy extends across multiple stacked ICs, leveraging the 2.66-Mb/s isolated serial communication interface to ensure maximum 4-µs latency between the first and 31st device in the chain.
The L9963F, housed in a 10- × 10-mm TQFP64 package, is in production now. Pricing starts at $4.60 for orders of 1,000 pieces.
About the Author
Lee Goldberg
Contributing Editor
Lee is the author of the popular PowerBites series.
Lee Goldberg is a self-identified “Recovering Engineer,” Maker/Hacker, Green-Tech Maven, Aviator, Gadfly, and Geek Dad. He spent the first 18 years of his career helping design microprocessors, embedded systems, renewable energy applications, and the occasional interplanetary spacecraft. After trading his ‘scope and soldering iron for a keyboard and a second career as a tech journalist, he’s spent the next two decades at several print and online engineering publications.
Lee’s current focus is power electronics, especially the technologies involved with energy efficiency, energy management, and renewable energy. This dovetails with his coverage of sustainable technologies and various environmental and social issues within the engineering community that he began in 1996. Lee also covers 3D printers, open-source hardware, and other Maker/Hacker technologies.
Lee holds a BSEE in Electrical Engineering from Thomas Edison College, and participated in a colloquium on technology, society, and the environment at Goddard College’s Institute for Social Ecology. His book, “Green Electronics/Green Bottom Line - A Commonsense Guide To Environmentally Responsible Engineering and Management,” was published by Newnes Press.
Lee, his wife Catherine, and his daughter Anwyn currently reside in the outskirts of Princeton N.J., where they masquerade as a typical suburban family.