Page 7 - EngineerIT November 2022

WIRELESS BATTERY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

Enabling smart battery ecosystems

solutions through higher battery

performance, greater lifetime

and cost value

By Stephan Prüfling, product manager, Battery Management Systems at AVL and
Norbert Bieler, director, business development E-Mobility at Analog Devices, Inc.

lectrification of passenger cars and today’s lithium technology. A different part of the battery – the battery management
commercial vehicles is entering a system (BMS), which monitors the state of charge (SOC) and state of health (SOH) of
Enew phase of market penetration. the battery – tends to go under the radar but needs to follow and support battery
The shift away from technology feasibility innovation.
demonstration to the mass production Here, the new wireless BMS (wBMS) technology, developed by Analog Devices and
of premium vehicles is obvious. The pioneered by General Motors in its modular Ultium battery platform, is now released to
commercialisation of technology leads to mass production. The wBMS gives car manufacturers a new competitive edge across the
more optimised and affordable vehicles. whole of a battery’s life – starting from when battery modules are first assembled, to
Nevertheless, most current operation in an EV, beyond to disposal and even, if needed, into the battery’s second life.
generation electric vehicles (EVs)
are still considered as expensive or Wired battery connections – the costly, heavy, and complex approach
less attractive when compared to wBMS technology development was based on an analysis of the drawbacks of the
conventional combustion engine cars. communications wiring in today’s conventional EV battery packs. This analysis drew
Consequently, cost reduction and on ADI’s expertise: it supplies the market’s most accurate BMS ICs in the wireless
improved performance are key to communications field. ADI also developed the world’s most robust mesh networking
ensuring a successful and sustainable technology for industrial environments.
market growth. Reduction of size, In a conventional EV battery pack, each cell is measured by a battery management
weight and cost impacts the competitive IC. Data from the battery management IC are then communicated back to the pack ECU
edge of battery systems over a vehicle’s through wiring. This requirement for communications inside the battery reflects the
complete lifecycle. On the other hand, complex architecture of a large battery pack: it is typically made up of modules, each of
the extension of the driving range
will also have a significant impact
on their market attractiveness and
competitiveness. Furthermore, as the
increasing numbers of EVs reach the end
of their life, car manufacturers will even
be competing for the value to be derived
from second life batteries recovered
from scrapped vehicles.
Out of this demand, news about
battery innovations tends to highlight
the new battery packaging concepts
and new materials that might one day Figure 1: A typical multicomponent wired BMS network (left) and the simpler arrangement made
be able to store more charge than possible by wBMS technology (right).

EngineerIT | November 2022 | 7