Renesas Electronics Corp., a leading supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, has unveiled all-in-one solutions for managing lithium-ion battery packs in a wide range of battery-powered products, including electric vehicles, the company announced March 18.
According to Renesas, its newly launched, ready battery management system with fixed firmware (R-BMS F) will significantly reduce the learning curve for developers, enabling rapid designs of safe, power-efficient battery management systems (BMS).
The R-BMS F is designed for lithium-ion batteries in both 2-4 and 3-10 cell series. According to the company, it includes Renesas’ industry-leading fuel gauge integrated circuits (FGICs), an integrated microcontroller (MCU) and an analog battery front end, preprogrammed firmware, software, development tools, and full documentation — all available in complete evaluation kits that are now ready to ship.
It further said that firmware is essential in BMS as it is used to monitor batteries’ state of charge (SoC), state of health (SoH), current and temperature, as well as actively balancing the voltages of the individual cells, and detect faults.
Renesas’ R-BMS F solutions include built-in, pretested firmware designed to work with the FGIC's on-board MCU. The firmware includes critical preprogrammed functions to maximize battery life and ensure safe operation. These include cell balancing, current control, and voltage and temperature monitoring. For added flexibility, the BMS lets developers set many parameters to meet specific requirements and adjust the solution for different cell chemistries via a graphical user interface (GUI), without the need for a full integrated development environment (IDE).
“One of the biggest bottlenecks for designing advanced power management solutions is the complex task of firmware development and validation,” said Chris Allexandre, senior vice president and general manager of Power at Renesas. “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.”
