TI offers new high-accuracy battery monitor and balancer

Texas Instruments (TI) has introduced a new automotive battery monitor and balancer that reports high-accuracy voltage measurements in systems up to 800 V. In addition, the BQ79616-Q1 streamlines Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL) D compliance in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs).

Filtering system-level noise to accurately measure battery-cell voltage and temperature and reliably reporting this information to the microcontroller (MCU) are key design challenges for automotive manufacturers. The BQ79616-Q1 addresses both of these challenges to help engineers achieve battery safety goals and maximize distance per charge in wired and wireless battery management systems.

The BQ79616-Q1 battery monitor and balancer is the industry’s first to include a patented wake-up-at-fault feature. When paired with the BQ79600-Q1 SPI/UART communication interface, it enables total system shutdown when the vehicle is parked or turned off. This helps design engineers conserve battery power, improve cell balancing and support safety requirements.

To learn more about TI’s wake-up-at-fault feature, read the technical article, “Conserve battery power in HEV/EVs with automatic host reverse wake-up.”

Maximizing the driving range
The BQ79616-Q1 is the first in a next-generation family of TI battery monitors and balancers to support high-accuracy monitoring for a broad spectrum of battery chemistries, including lithium-iron phosphate (LiFePO₄). This enables automotive manufacturers to more precisely measure battery state-of-charge and state-of-health, thereby reducing cost.

The BQ79616-Q1’s integrated digital low-pass filter and high-precision analog-to-digital converter optimize signal measurement accuracy, delivering cell-voltage measurements with less than 2 mV of error.

Streamlining the ASIL D certification
TI’s new monitor and balancer meets component-level requirements of ISO 26262, supporting ASIL D compliance for voltage measurement, temperature measurement and communication – dramatically reducing bill of materials (BOM) and software overhead.

With the industry’s fastest time in diagnosing battery failures, 100 ms in 400-V systems, the BQ79616-Q1 enables greater system reliability and battery safety.

Improving system reliability
The BQ79616-Q1 offers robust electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) performance to withstand the harsh, noisy environments of HEVs and EVs without compromising the reliability of daisy-chain communication. In addition, the device’s pin rating enables it to withstand high-voltage transients and hot-plug events, and it incorporates autonomous cell balancing to simplify thermal management.

To learn more about improving system reliability with advanced thermal management, read the technical article, “Enhance thermal management in EVs with autonomous cell balancing.”

Scaling the battery designs
TI’s new family of monitors and balancers offers multiple channel options in the same package, providing pin-to-pin compatibility and 100% reuse of established software.

Further, the BQ79616-Q1 integrates bus-bar measurement, enabling engineers to maximize channel usage across various combinations of battery module sizes. Combining the BQ79616-Q1 with the BQ79600-Q1, engineers can design their battery management system in a closed-loop configuration with only one communication interface to further reduce component count.