STMicroelectronics Announces New Automotive Battery Management IC

STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM) has announced the L9963F, an automotive battery management IC. The product is equipped with all the necessary functions to manage lithium-ion battery packs for hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles, industrial energy storage systems, and 48V/96V applications.

The L9963F is an internally improved version of the market-proven L9963E and is fully compatible with the L9963 series, allowing for replacement without changing hardware or software.

Individually, it can monitor 4 to 14 series-connected cells, supporting applications up to 48V. By connecting multiple units, it can support up to 31 battery packs, totaling 434 series cells.

The coulomb counter integrated into the L9963F supports pack overcurrent detection in both ignition-on and ignition-off states. A fully redundant cell measurement path with an A/D converter swap function enhances safety and enables limp-home functionality.

The L9963F can draw power from the monitored battery and integrates circuits to generate a stable internal reference voltage and ensure measurement accuracy. It supports a cell balancing current of up to 200mA, contributing to battery health. It also features a silent balancing mode that keeps the internal balancing MOSFET driver active for a certain period after entering low-power mode, minimizing power consumption while maintaining protection.

The product features 9 GPIO pins and an SPI interface for control and monitoring, along with comprehensive fault detection and notification functions. The L9963F complies with ISO 26262 and is capable of ASIL-D support for functional safety applications.

The L9963F features fully synchronized current and voltage sampling with 0µs synchronization delay between samples. It also includes a 16-bit voltage A/D converter with a maximum error of ±2mV in the 0.5V to 4.3V range. This high synchronization accuracy is maintained even when multiple ICs are stacked. By utilizing a 2.66Mbps isolated serial communication interface, the delay from the 1st to the 31st IC in the battery cell chain can be kept within 4µs.

The L9963F is currently in mass production and is available in a TQFP64 package. The reference sample price is approximately $4.60 for 1,000 units.