Electric Vehicles (EVs) are the future of mobility, but one thing which has hindered its growth is the energy storage system. The majority of the EVs use Li-ion battery packs for storing energy but the Li-Ion cells are highly unstable and are prone to catching fire. This can be averted by using a Battery Management System (BMS). But designing a BMS is a complex process and to ease the process Renesas has released an AUTOSAR-compliant complex device driver (CDD) software module, a software to simplify the development of BMS for Electric Vehicles.
This software is specifically designed to complement Renesas’ Li-Ion BMS IC to enable ASIL D-compliant Designs. The software pairs with Renesas’ ISL78714 Li-Ion battery management IC to enable faster designing and optimizing the performance of next-generation systems. The CDD software includes configuration and integration of required microcontroller abstraction layer (MCAL) modules provided by Renesas for the RH850 MCU. The software also provides a low-level solution for collecting battery parameters such as the cell voltage and temperature measurements and enables controlling cell balancing functions of the ISL78714. Furthermore, the configurable parameters determine the number of cells in the BMS system and the desired battery cell data collection rate.
According to the company, the CDD software can do real-time battery measurements. The software also provides customers with a practical architecture for simplifying their software design and allows them to focus efforts on their unique application features.
“As the EV market continues to expand rapidly, battery management is a critical element in the success of new vehicles,” said Niall Lyne, Vice President of the Automotive Analog Power and Video Business Division at Renesas. “The Renesas ISL78714 IC combined with our new CDD software helps our customers get the best performance possible out of their battery management systems, reduces their development schedule, and simultaneously eases the difficult process of meeting stringent ASIL D safety requirements.”
Both the CDD software and the Renesas BMS reference design hardware kit are available for purchase.
