Maxim introduces smart car battery safety device

Maxim Integrated Products has introduced a new 12-channel, high-voltage smart sensor data-acquisition device to improve safety for car lithium-ion battery packs, called the MAX17843.

Electric vehicles (EVs), hybrid EVs, and plug-in hybrids rely on large lithium-ion battery packs filled with hundreds or even thousands of individual battery cells.

With industry experts predicting that 25% of cars sold by 2025 will have electric engines, automotive OEMs and Tier 1s need an intelligent battery management system to enable safe, low cost solutions with robust communications.

Maxim claims it is enabling a safer, smarter car of the future with the MAX17843 battery management system (BMS).

MAX17843 meets the safety standard ISO 26262 and ASIL D requirements (also applicable for ASIL C). Its differential universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) using capacitive isolation reduces bill of materials (BOM) costs and failure in time (FIT) rates. With this, designers can save up to 90% of their isolation BOM cost, claims the company.

The UART, with ultimate flexibility, enables robust communications in noisy environments. Using Maxim’s unique proprietary daisy-chain architecture and successive-approximation-register (SAR) analog-to-digital converter (ADC), the MAX17843 captures fast, accurate voltage measurements and delivers high EMC performance. It is applicable for a variety of automotive and EV powertrain applications, says Maxim.

“The BMS market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 43% from 2016 to 2021,” says Siddharth Jaiswal, automotive industry analyst at Technavio.

“This ASIL D-certified battery management system by Maxim proactively detects faults and is extremely important to the safety of vehicles,” he added.

“The MAX17843 gives our customers the functionality necessary for safe and intelligent battery management operation,” says Tamer Kira, Director, Automotive Business Unit at Maxim Integrated.