STMicroelectronics' two products target the booming Chinese new energy vehicle market

     New energy vehicles are nothing new in China. According to a 2012 academic paper, the government introduced preferential policies for the development of new energy vehicles as early as 1995. In 2015, sales of new energy vehicles in China surpassed those in the United States. In December 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology predicted that new energy vehicles would account for 25% of domestic car sales by 2025. New energy vehicles include pure electric vehicles (BEVs), plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) and fuel cell vehicles (FCEVs). China is the market for the largest number of plug-in cars and electric buses, and local consumers are following the global trend to favor electric SUVs or crossovers. Byd's Tang plug-in hybrid SUV ranks among the top five annual sales of plug-in vehicles.

     To support and promote this innovative spirit, ST has developed the EVAL-L9788 evaluation board and provides a schematic and bill of materials, so it can be used as a starting point for custom designs. There are jumpers on the board for configuring the chip, and to ensure a safe and reliable development platform, the board even integrates short-circuit, overcurrent and overheat protection. The board can be connected to the SPC56M-Discovery suite to further advance the proof-of-concept process and take full advantage of ST's entire ecosystem. ST also provides an application note to help designers use the L9788 to drive typical loads in VCU applications, with full electrical, thermal and reliability validation. ST takes the needs of small businesses into account, and we understand that smaller companies are particularly sensitive to these types of solutions because they can use them for research and development and design product features that match those offered by larger companies without having to make significant investments.

     The L9963, another product ST launched in collaboration with our team in China, transmits information via SPI, giving developers a familiar means of communication that allows them to handle signals with ease. This is the first battery management solution we have released, and it is unique in its ±2 mV measurement accuracy and no out-of-step delay between sampling intervals, which makes sampling faster and design simpler. The device can also manage data from seven external negative temperature coefficient (NTC) thermistors, providing more information to the host controller and creating more complex application systems. In addition, 31 L9963 chips can be connected through a Daisy chain method to monitor 434 battery cells, and the entire system sampling time is less than 4 microseconds, although the system structure is very large, but only one microcontroller is required.

     One of the strengths of the ST ecosystem demonstrated on L9963 is system scalability. The product is AEC-Q100 certified, but it can also be used on electric bicycles or scooters. The fact that the same device can be reused in multiple new energy vehicles is a huge benefit to automakers because it reduces component testing and allows teams to use familiar ics and development tools, saving development time and improving product reliability. When a market, such as China's new energy vehicles, is growing very fast and the rate of innovation is also very fast, the ability to reuse the same component is usually a very rare benefit. In addition, as companies become more aware of their environmental impact, the L9963 helps them manage inventory, optimize operational efficiency and reduce material waste.