Texas Devices was at CES 2023 this week, the place it launched its newest battery cell and battery pack administration instruments. The corporate says its new battery administration system merchandise might improve the vary of an electrical car by as a lot as 20%. How can BMS know-how do this? Learn on.
The technical particulars will make fascinating studying for you tech sorts who get pleasure from studying wiring diagrams and exploring the intricacies of transistor design. Principally, it comes all the way down to the brand new TI elements with the ability to higher perceive what is definitely occurring inside that container we name a battery pack and utilizing that info to extra precisely predict its efficiency and vary.
In a press launch, the corporate says its new automotive battery cell and pack displays have probably the most correct measurement capabilities out there in the marketplace. As EVs develop in recognition, superior battery administration methods (BMS) are serving to overcome essential limitations to widespread adoption. By specializing in fixing advanced system design challenges, TI gives probably the most superior, complete portfolio of BMS units, enabling automakers to create a safer, extra dependable driving expertise and speed up EV adoption.
TI’s newest battery controls are the BQ79718-Q1 battery cell monitor and the BQ79731-Q1 battery pack monitor. These units present an unprecedented stage of accuracy and precision in measuring battery voltage, present, and temperature to find out the true vary of a car and improve the general life and security of the battery pack.
“Automakers goal to get probably the most vary doable out of their EVs, and correct state of cost estimations are important to attain this,” mentioned Sam Wong, normal supervisor for BMS at TI. “Our new units convey considerably larger precision to voltage and present measurement, giving automakers confidence to precisely measure an EV’s true vary.”
Vital Battery Administration System Capabilities
As electrical autos turn out to be extra well-liked, the problem for automakers is to replicate true vary whereas making the car extra reasonably priced. This interprets into making the battery packs decrease price with larger vitality densities. Each single watt-hour saved and retrieved from the cells is essential to extending the driving vary, the corporate says.
The BQ79718-Q1 permits automakers to maximise the true vary of their EV with excessive efficiency battery cell voltage measurements all the way down to 1 mV of accuracy, and the BQ79731-Q1 permits measurement of the battery pack present all the way down to 0.05% of accuracy. Such precision gives the clearest manner doable to precisely measure state of cost and state of well being on the particular person cell and pack stage. That in flip permits drivers to have higher details about the true vary of their automobiles at any second in time.
Greatest within the trade voltage and present synchronization permits instantaneous monitoring of battery pack energy, which gives an actual time snapshot of battery well being. This stage of synchronization permits electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, which gives important perception into the cell core temperature, battery growing old, and state of cost of the battery.
The BQ79718-Q1 battery cell monitoring built-in circuit achieves an unprecedented Automotive Security Integrity Stage (ASIL) accuracy, giving automakers the power to cost and discharge a car battery pack past any cell monitor beforehand in the marketplace.
Credit score: Texas Devices
Determine 1 presents a typical BMS structure containing a battery administration unit (BMU), a cell supervisor unit (CMU), and a battery junction field (BJB). A BMU sometimes has a microcontroller (MCU), which manages all the features throughout the battery pack. The standard BJB is a relay field or a swap field with energy contactors that connects all the battery pack to the load inverter, motor, or battery charger.
Determine 1a exhibits the normal BMS with no energetic electronics within the junction field. All the measurements within the BJB are measured on the BMU. There are wires connecting the BJB into the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) terminals.
Determine 1b exhibits the clever BJB. There’s a devoted pack monitor contained in the field that measures all voltages and currents and passes the data to the MCU utilizing easy twisted pair communication. It helps eliminating wires and cabling harnesses and improves voltage and present measurements with decrease noise.

Credit score: Texas Devices
Determine 2 exhibits the totally different excessive voltages, present, and temperatures that the pack monitor measures inside a BJB enabled by the BQ79731-Q1 battery pack monitor.
- Voltage: The high-voltage is measured utilizing divided-down resistor strings. These voltage measurements monitor the state of high-voltage elements within the system.
- Temperature: The temperature measurements monitor the temperature of the shunt resistor in order that the MCU can apply compensation, in addition to the temperature of the contactors to ensure that they aren’t careworn past the conventional working circumstances.
- Present: The present measurements are based mostly on both:
- A shunt resistor — as a result of the currents in an EV can go as much as 1000’s of amperes, the shunt resistance values are extraordinarily small — within the vary of 25 µOhms to 50 µOhms; or
- A corridor impact sensor — Used to measure the EV present on the excessive voltage rail whereas nonetheless being remoted. Its dynamic vary is usually restricted, thus there may be a number of sensors within the system to measure all the vary.
The primary operate of a battery administration system is to watch cell voltages, pack voltages, and pack present. As well as, because of the high-voltage design of the BMS, insulation resistance measurement between the high-voltage area and low-voltage area is required in an effort to catch defects within the battery construction and defend in opposition to hazardous circumstances.
No Provide Chain Points
Automakers can jumpstart their designs by buying the battery cell monitor BQ79718-Q1 analysis module for $399. Additionally out there is the battery pack monitor BQ79731-Q1 analysis module priced at $199. All merchandise featured for BMS are instantly out there for buy from Texas Devices. Availability is a vital issue on this planet of producing at present, the place shortages of pc chip based mostly elements are stopping automakers from assembly the explosion of demand for electrical automobiles.
We’ve no manner of understanding how these new battery administration system instruments from Texas Devices examine with these utilized by trade main corporations like Tesla, however we will presume TI wouldn’t be investing money and time into making extra correct methods if there was not a necessity. Correct details about the standing of particular person battery cells and a battery pack as an entire ought to allow drivers to maximise charging efficiency and vary — two of a very powerful components driving the EV revolution.
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