Targeting the three disruptive trends in automotive electrification, ADI’s first blockbuster speech of the year is not to be missed!

As a global analog chip giant with more than 50 years of technology and experience, Vincent Troy, general manager of automotive electrification at Analog Devices (ADI), represented ADI in the Hundred People Forum and shared ADI's thoughts and achievements in promoting safer commercialization of autonomous driving and automotive electrification and networking.

As a symbol of the transformation and upgrading of the global automotive industry, new energy vehicles have overturned traditional fuel vehicles, and the integration of electrification, intelligence, and networking has become a general trend. According to data shared by Wan Gang, Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology, in 2018, the sales of new energy vehicles in major countries around the world exceeded 2 million, and China's sales reached 1.256 million. By the end of 2018, the cumulative sales of new energy vehicles worldwide exceeded 5.5 million, and the Chinese market accounted for more than 53%, becoming the "main battlefield" for promoting new energy vehicles. China's new energy vehicle market is also in a critical stage of transition from the introduction period to the growth period, which will lead the acceleration of the global automotive electrification process.

The battery life and charging stations that the government and enterprises are concerned about today are just a prelude to the whole process. In Vincent's view, autonomous driving, in-cockpit electronics and infotainment systems, and vehicle electrification are three important disruptive trends that cannot be ignored. The technological progress of electric vehicles should be fought on two fronts. One front is batteries, motors, and electronic controls to ensure the basic functions of the car. The other front is also the focus of future competition, informationization, networking, and intelligence, and ultimately the realization of unmanned driving.

Ouyang Minggao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, mentioned at the forum that Japan, the United States and Europe are currently working hard to develop a new generation of solid-state batteries, and lithium-ion batteries have the potential and prospects to become the mainstream technology of power batteries. ADI released the first lead-acid battery management IC in 2007, occupying a global leading position in this field, and also following the trend of electric vehicles, striding towards lithium battery electronic management systems.

Not long ago, CATL, a world-leading new energy solution provider, awarded ADI the Outstanding Solution Award, giving positive praise to ADI's world-leading lithium-ion battery management system chips and new energy battery management system BMS solutions.

Generally speaking, lithium battery power systems need to have the following functional characteristics: monitoring function; maintaining good performance in harsh environments; and providing reliable and safe power management. ADI's lithium battery monitoring IC products have developed to the fifth generation, and are at the forefront of the industry in terms of safety, accuracy, and functionality. According to Vincent, in terms of key monitoring functions, ADI can achieve 1 millivolt voltage measurement accuracy with the help of a unique buried Zener reference voltage source and noise filtering analog-to-digital converter, which is very important for improving the key indicator of driving range.

How to connect the monitoring and management information of the lithium battery power system is also critical. Vincent pointed out that ADI's new wireless battery management technology is a technology that uses radio frequency wireless methods to integrate these signals on the BMS with the help of SmartMesh wireless mesh network products.

At the same time, for the harsh working environment of IC chips under high-voltage environments, ADI uses technology to replace optical or discrete components to reduce size and weight to reduce system costs. At the same time, ADI has built a dedicated manufacturing plant to manufacture high-performance gold coils on standard silicon wafers, and optimize the system when mounting electronic components to maximize system efficiency. "This is achieved using ADI's silicon carbide drive technology. As a very successful technical case, a large part of the engineering design comes from the Chinese team, which has created a lot of products for ADI." Vincent emphasized.

As the core component of power output, the control of the motor is crucial. For the wire control solution of autonomous driving, ADI cooperated with the world's leading reluctance supplier, combined its own analog device technology such as signal conditioning and interface with reluctance sensors, and launched the industry-leading, cost-effective, and safer reluctance solution (xMR) for detecting speed, angle and position, which can be used for high-precision wire control motor drive systems such as wire control brakes and wire control steering wheels. According to Vincent, ADI's xMR detection technology is the core of wire control steering and wire control braking systems for precision motor control. ADI is designing it to be more adaptable to future systems to support L4 and L5 autonomous driving.

In addition, Vincent also mentioned that in the field of smart cockpits, ADI audio bus ^A2B technology supports advanced audio algorithms such as active noise reduction ANC, in-car call ICC, echo cancellation and noise reduction ECNR, while significantly reducing the weight of traditional cable harnesses to increase battery life; the highest performance LED headlight driver can replace incandescent lamps with better quality and more power-efficient LED technology; ADI's current controller technology can also improve efficiency, reduce weight and increase mileage for all measurement systems. In fact, in addition to the layout of new energy vehicles, ADI has successfully laid out the future era of smart driving with mature technologies in the fields of LiDAR laser radar, 24GHz and 76GHz~78GHz microwave radar, and IMU (inertial navigation unit), etc., with complete automotive electronic system solutions.

In this green wave sweeping the global automotive industry, ADI, based on its extensive experience in automotive electrification, provides solutions with lower emissions, higher efficiency, higher reliability and safety, making battery management, powertrain and infotainment systems smaller, lighter and more reliable while maintaining high performance. "In this wave, the Chinese market is huge, and many emerging technologies are emerging. ADI hopes to partner with more local customers and will continue to expand the local automotive electronics service team to provide customers with fast and professional services. " Vincent concluded.