Intersil - Battery-pack monitor safeguards hybrid and electric vehicle power systems

Intersil has introduced the new 12-cell lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery pack monitor ISL78610. The device provides battery balancing and accurate voltage and temperature monitoring to protect lithium-ion battery packs in hybrid electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, and electric vehicles. When combined with the high-precision ISL78600 multi-cell battery manager, system designers can use the ISL78610 as a stand-alone battery pack monitor or redundant backup device. This powerful combination enables automakers to achieve higher ISO 26262 automotive safety integrity level (ASIL) D levels. The feature-rich ISL78610 can monitor and balance up to 12 batteries with accurate voltage readings and diagnostics. This allows system designers to make informed decisions based on absolute voltage levels, rather than simply receiving "system abnormal" signals indicating out-of-range conditions. The ISL78610 includes a voltage reference, a 14-bit analog-to-digital converter and registers for control and data, and is directly connected to the microcontroller via its 2Mbps SPI interface. The device also provides four external temperature inputs and includes fault detection and diagnostics for all key internal functions. Battery monitoring and management ICs meet the stringent safety, reliability, and performance requirements of next-generation automotive battery pack systems. The ISL78610 and ISL78600 together provide internal and external fault detection functions such as wire breaks, overvoltage and undervoltage, and temperature and battery balance faults to mitigate battery pack failures. Using a proprietary communication system, multiple devices can be daisy-chained together to support a system of up to 168 batteries, which provides industry-leading transient and EMC / EMI immunity beyond the automotive Manufacturer's requirements. Intersil's daisy-chain architecture uses low-cost capacitive isolation and twisted-pair wiring to stack multiple battery packs together, while the IC's internal protection functions prevent hot-plugging and high-voltage transients. "Philips Chesley, senior vice president of Intersil Precision Products, said," The ISL78610 battery pack monitor provides customers with the right combination of lithium-ion battery pack monitoring and control capabilities. "" Using the display with the ISL78600 battery manager also provides car manufacturers with the ruggedness, accuracy, and redundancy needed to implement an ASIL-D compatible battery management system. "