Automotive-grade protection ics for electric vehicles and electric bicycles

     ABLIC introduces the S-19193 series of three - to six-cell battery monitoring and protection ics for automobiles. It is a forward-looking new functional safety solution for auto-grade protection ics for electric vehicles and electric bicycles. BMS for electric vehicles, electric bicycles, etc., require functional safety and comply with ISO26262 (Road Vehicle Functional Safety Standard).

     The acceptable criteria for functional safety are: (1) fail-safe (the ability to restore a safe state in the event of a failure or failure), (2) fail-safe operation (the ability to continue operating even if a failure or failure occurs), and (3) fail-degraded (the ability to continue operating in the event of a decline in functionality). In the past, the traditional approach to achieving (1) fail-safe functional safety has been to use MCUS and high-performance ics called AFEs to monitor overcharge and overdischarge of automotive batteries.

     Under the traditional fail-safe approach, the safety of the driver is ensured by "returning to the safe state", that is, stopping the vehicle in the event of an actual failure or malfunction, and there is no need to continue monitoring the battery after the vehicle has stopped safely. However, with the development of autonomous driving technology, it is expected that situations in which the system, rather than the driver, handles any problems will increase, so fault operations and fault de-escalation methods that allow for continued operation even if a fault or malfunction occurs will become increasingly important.

     The new series of automotive three - to six-cell battery monitoring protection ics are developed in accordance with ISO 26262 and are equipped to detect automotive battery overcharge and overdischarge. With this series of systems, battery monitoring can be carried out as an auxiliary system even in the case of a failure of the conventional monitoring system (the main system), and a safer BMS can be achieved, i.e. (2) failure operation and failure degradation compliance.

     There are also examples of AFE and MCU internal monitoring functions configured as primary and secondary, but these are mainly for fault and fault detection by monitoring each other and are not enough to back up the function. Internal redundancy also creates the risk of "conjunctive failure", a loss of function in the event of a failure; However, with this series, secondary monitoring can be completely independent of primary monitoring to mitigate the risk of joint failures.

     The new series can also be configured with independently operated secondary monitoring circuits that do not require MCU control, which also helps reduce the number of design processes. Safety manuals are also available for download to support the BMS functional safety design using the S-19193 series. The product also meets the PPAP standards set by the American Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) and is scheduled to be Grade1 compliant with AEC-Q100.