New platform features pre-validated firmware, software, and documentation
Semiconductor solutions provider Renesas has unveiled its all-in-one solutions for managing lithium-ion battery packs in a range of consumer products. E-bikes, vacuum cleaners, robotics, and drones can all benefit from the new platform.
The new development is was debuted at Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC) in Atalanta, Georgia, between March 16th and 20th at Renesas booth, where live demonstrations were held.
The firmware has been pre-validated and provided by R-BMS F (Ready Battery Management System with Fixed Firmware) to reduce the time it takes for developers to become familiar with the new technology. This enables faster designs and allows safe, power-efficient battery management systems.
Lithium-ion batteries of both 2-4 and 3-10 cell series are compatible with the solution and come with Renesas’ fuel gauge ICs (FGICs), integrated microcontrollers, an analog battery front end, pre-programmed firmware, software, development tools, and comes with full documentation.
By creating pre-programmed firmware, it simplifies the process in development, making critical infrastructure such as battery management systems easy to produce. The systems monitor batteries’ state of charge, state of health, current, and temperature, balancing voltages of individual cells, and detect faults.
Battery life is maximised through the pre-programmed functions, leading to safe operation. Functions include cell balancing, current control, and voltage and temperature monitoring.
Operators can set a variety of parameters to meet specific requirements and adjust the solution for different cell chemistries. This can be achieved using the graphical user interface, and does not need a full integrated development environment to do so.
Chris Allexandre, senior vice president and general manager of Power at Renesas, said: “One of the biggest bottlenecks for designing advanced power management solutions is the complex task of firmware development and validation. Not everyone has the expertise or in-house resources to write their own algorithms. Our all-in-one R-BMS F battery management system eliminates this process and provides market-ready power solutions that work without requiring specialized technical knowledge of MCU programming or advanced battery management design.”
All-inclusive evaluation kits include the hardware, software, tools, and documentation to kick-start development. The firmware powering the solution combines an analog battery front end and an ultra-low-power RL78 MCU into a single package. The analog part provides accurate measurements of cell voltage, current, and temperature whilst controlling the external MOSFETs and converting analog data into digital signals.
Synchronous functions take place in the digital component. The main CPU, clocks, timers, and serial interfaces all belong here.
