Qorvo at embedded world 2023

Qorvo has recently gone out of its way to expand into the power management front, identifying key areas of consumer demand for battery management systems. This is where Qorvo’s two new products hope to hit their mark, expanding its power management portfolio to include the PAC22140 and PAC25140 Power Application Controller (PAC) devices.

The two PACs are the industry’s first single-chip solutions to offer support for battery packs with up to 20 cells in series (20s). These products leverage an intelligent motor control foundation to enable intelligent battery management solutions (BMS) for a wide range of industrial, e-mobility and battery backup applications.

McCarthy comments: “Now when people are needing to move equipment over to battery power, consumers really demand more performance and more power. That’s where the cell count of battery packs are going up, to get that performance that consumers demand and that higher power industrial equipment needs. That’s why we decided to go for that 20-cell solution.”

Qorvo hopes that it’s PAC22140 and PAC25140 PAC devices will fill this gap in the market and provide consumers with a solution to their needs.

Both devices feature crucial features such as communication, programmability, MCU memory, microcontrollers, low-power hibernate mode, cell balancing, cell monitoring, and protection measures amongst many others.

The PAC22140 is available in a 9x9mm, 60-pin QFN package and the PAC25140 is available in a 10x10mm, 68-pin QFN package.

A fully programmable solution

Qorvo’s PAC devices are fully programmable to fit consumer needs, allowing them to programme them for their own needs and to their own IP. “We [at Qorvo] provide the ecosystem and the tools for customers so that they can get started, but we give them that very flexible industry-standard digital core that they can programme and add their own IP,” says McCarthy.

Development kits alongside PAC devices

Qorvo’s PAC22140EVK1 and PAC25140EVK1 hardware development kits enable users to develop intelligent BMS solutions by taking advantage of the fully integrated Arm Cortex-M microcontroller with a BMS-specific analogue front-end (AFE).