STMicroelectronics has unveiled the 'L9963F,' an automotive battery management IC that improves measurement precision and functional safety while maintaining compatibility with existing battery management ICs. This product targets the demand for enhanced BMS performance while reducing the burden of design modifications, amidst the trend of larger battery packs for electric vehicles and energy storage systems.

ST announced on the 1st that it has released the L9963F automotive battery management IC. The new product is based on the existing L9963E with improved internal performance and ensures compatibility so that existing L9963 series users can use it as a replacement without changing hardware or software.

The L9963F can monitor 4 to 14 serial cells as a single device. By connecting multiple ICs, it can manage up to 31 battery packs and battery arrays consisting of a total of 434 serial cells, making it suitable for hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles, industrial energy storage systems, and 48V and 96V applications.

The new product detects overcurrent in the battery pack regardless of whether the ignition is on or off through a Coulomb counting function. A redundant cell measurement path including an ADC swap function is also applied to enhance safety and support the implementation of emergency driving functions.

It also includes a cell balancing function for battery health protection. The L9963F supports a maximum cell balancing current of 200mA and offers a silent balancing mode that maintains the integrated balancing MOSFET driver for a certain period even after entering low-power mode. This allows for reduced energy consumption while maintaining battery protection.

Measurement performance is focused on voltage-current synchronization. The L9963F provides current-voltage sampling with a 0µs asynchronous delay and integrates a 16-bit voltage ADC with a maximum error of ±2mV in the range of 0.5V to 4.3V. Even in a stacked IC environment, it maintains a maximum delay time of 4µs between the first and 31st devices via a 2.66Mbps isolated serial communication interface.

It also features nine general-purpose I/O pins, an SPI interface, and fault detection and notification capabilities. ST explained that the L9963F complies with ISO 26262 standards and is designed to support ASIL-D functional safety applications.

In the electric vehicle and ESS markets, the precision and scalability of BMS semiconductors are becoming increasingly important due to the expansion of battery pack capacity and stricter safety requirements. The L9963F is interpreted as a replacement product that can enhance performance while maintaining the existing platform, focusing on reducing the burden of design changes during the battery system upgrade process.