Detailed explanation of the technical development trends of key components of new energy vehicles

Based on the previous long-term successful cooperation with new energy vehicles and suppliers at home and abroad, ADI has established long-term good relationships with car manufacturers and first-tier component suppliers. ADI will launch a new generation of lithium battery management solutions in the near future, which will be defined and designed according to the actual needs of customers, fully supporting customers to complete excellent system design and meet reasonable cost targets.

In the past two years, many countries around the world have adjusted their development strategies, accelerated their layout in new energy and intelligent connected vehicles, and have initially formulated a timetable for banning the production and sale of fuel vehicles, which is roughly within the next 15 years. In the medium- and long-term plan released by the Chinese government this year, it stated that the sales of new energy vehicles (NEVs) such as pure electric vehicles will increase from 500,000 in 2016 to 7 million in 2025, and has also launched relevant research to formulate a timetable for stopping the production and sale of traditional energy vehicles.

The global automotive industry is accelerating its transformation towards intelligence and electrification. In order to seize the new round of market opportunities, automotive electronics companies must understand the technical development trends of some key components of new energy vehicles. Recently, I had the opportunity to communicate with ADI automotive electronics experts, and I have specially sorted out the following views for readers.

Battery Management System (BMS)

For the development of new energy vehicles, the importance of battery management system is self-evident. With the development of battery technology, the endurance has been greatly improved, so safety and reliability have become the most critical factors. In addition, with the intensification of competition among new energy vehicle brands, how to control costs is also the top priority of the industry. Therefore, Xu Zhibin, sales director of ADI's China Automotive Customer Division, believes that there are three major characteristics that determine the competitive advantage of battery management:

The first is high precision. Recently, as the industry's requirements for the accuracy of battery power calculation continue to increase, and more and more excellent battery process technologies have emerged, the battery charge and discharge curve has become flatter, so the battery management chip needs to have higher measurement accuracy, that is, consistent high precision in various environments and situations, including accurate measurement of voltage, current, temperature and other parameters.

The second is high reliability. Due to the failure characteristics of lithium batteries, the reliability and safety of the battery management system are crucial. Domestic manufacturers have begun to pay attention to system-level safety design and the introduction of the ISO26262 standard. In the field of battery management chips, mainstream semiconductor manufacturers have integrated more and more complete fault reporting mechanisms, data verification mechanisms, and redundant monitoring mechanisms into the chips to help customers achieve a higher level of system-level safety and further improve the reliability and robustness of the system.

The last point, which is also what users care about most, is the appropriate system cost. With the challenge of subsidy policy, in order to make the terminal sales price more reasonable, suppliers at all levels need to cooperate to reduce costs.

These new technology trends are exactly what ADI is committed to in the field of battery management chips. ADI has been a market leader in battery management systems for many years, and is a chipset that has been proven by the market and customers to be reliable, high-performance, and at a reasonable system cost. From battery management monitoring chips (LTC680x/LTC681x), to isolation (iCoupler? isoPower?), to current detection (ADuCM33x), to insulation detection, all kinds of chips are complete and have first-class performance.

Lithium battery management system based on AD7280A

Analog Devices ranks first in the field of traditional 12V lead-acid battery management, with a global market share of over 95%. Many large cities in China are experiencing serious congestion. Intelligent lead-acid battery management can enable the start-stop system, shutting down the engine when the battery can support power consumption to reduce fuel consumption, and more importantly, significantly reduce environmental pollution. ADI's current detection chip ADuCM703x/ADuCM33x can accurately detect the current of the battery pack. It can not only be used in the traditional start-stop system, but also is widely used by many domestic and foreign customers in the lithium battery management system to accurately monitor the current of the battery pack.

Isolation: In battery management and motor control systems, strong and weak electrical signals need to be isolated in many places. ADI's iCoupler? and isoPower? series of data and power isolators have excellent data rates and power consumption while meeting isolation level requirements. This set of lithium battery monitoring and protection system solutions can be applied to lithium battery monitoring and protection systems for energy, industrial and automotive applications. At present, this series of products occupies most of the domestic isolation applications in new energy vehicles. We are also launching a new generation of products with higher EMC performance and reliability to help domestic and foreign customers meet the increasingly high technical standards of new energy vehicles.

ADI has established long-term good relationships with car manufacturers and Tier 1 component suppliers. Based on its previous long-term successful cooperation with new energy vehicles and suppliers at home and abroad, ADI will also launch a new generation of lithium battery management solutions in the near future, which will be defined and designed according to the actual needs of customers, fully supporting customers to complete excellent system design and meet reasonable cost targets.

Motor Control Solutions

Whether it is a traditional car or a new energy car, motor control is essential. The technical trends in this field show the following characteristics:

1. High precision.

2. Gradually increasing power, from electronic power steering to drive motors for new energy vehicles.

3. High reliability requirements.

4. Appropriate cost.

ADI has the largest market share in China's motor control resolver chip AD2S1205/AD2S1210 (capable of handling tracking rates up to 3,125 RPS with an accuracy of ±2.5 arc minutes), and is working very hard to promote low-cost anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) solutions. In order to achieve a higher level of system safety, module suppliers in the industry are also required to accelerate the development of related software.

The AD2S1205 is a 12-bit RDC, and the AD2S1210 has a 10/12/14/16-bit resolution that can be set by the user. The chips have differential inputs and incremental encoder outputs, as well as programmable fault detection thresholds. They can be used for motor shaft angle and speed measurement in transmissions, EPS, and HEV/EV motors.

ADI's AMR sensor ADA4571 integrates a signal conditioning amplifier and an ADC driver to generate two analog outputs indicating the angular position of the surrounding magnetic field. It contains two chips, an AMR sensor, and a fixed gain (nominal gain of 40) instrumentation amplifier in one package, providing clean and amplified cosine and sine output signals related to the rotating magnetic field angle. The output voltage range is proportional to the power supply voltage. The chip can be used in next-generation motor control applications, greatly reducing system costs and achieving good functional performance.

ADAS and autonomous driving systems

The development of new energy vehicles seems to naturally proceed in parallel with the development of intelligence. Relevant manufacturers have always been active and have even taken the lead in many aspects. This has also promoted the rapid development of various ADAS and autonomous driving technologies. Among them, the emerging radar technology is also constantly evolving, and many innovative solutions have emerged.

Xu Zhibin pointed out that millimeter-wave radar can cover a distance of several hundred meters, is not affected by light, and can accurately locate the position, direction, and speed of an object. LiDAR can very accurately detect objects within a range of tens to hundreds of meters, with higher accuracy than millimeter-wave radar, but the current cost is also much higher.

It is reported that ADI can provide the industry's leading visual ADAS processors and complete 24GHz radar chip products. ADI is currently ahead of its competitors in the development of the local 24GHz radar market and customers in China. We have a complete 24GHz signal chain chipset to help Chinese customers achieve mass production of radar products such as blind spot detection and forward detection.