ABLIC launches the S-19114 series of automotive battery monitoring ICs

A battery monitoring IC is used to monitor battery voltage and when the voltage set by the IC is reached, it outputs a detection signal.

The automobile industry is currently making efforts to improve the quality of automobile parts to prevent traffic accidents and to implement functional safety to reduce the impact of an accident that may occur in the rare event of a failure.

Automobiles contain a variety of safety mechanisms; one such example is a countermeasure against interruption of voltage supply from the battery to the ECU. When the supply of power from the battery is interrupted, the voltage to the ECU drops. As soon as the voltage drop is detected, the ECU tries to safely reset itself. A reset requires certain amount of time, which can normally be provided by installing a capacitor at the input to the ECU. Since the voltage supplied to the ECU drops also while the battery monitoring IC sends detection signals, capacitor settings must provide the ECU with enough time to perform a safe reset also at such times.

The growing complexity of automotive functions has led to a greater integration of ECUs. More ECUs require more power and more capacitors. All of which results in higher costs and larger board footprint.

Lowering the number of capacitors while still ensuring the safe reset of ECUs requires a faster detection response from the battery monitoring IC.

The S-19114 Series launched today is a battery monitoring IC that operates at 36V and has the industry’s fastest detection response time of Max. 10μs. Two components impact the detection response time: the resistance components and the capacitance components in the IC. However, they are not much of a problem as the resistance components of the S-19114 Series are 1/5 of earlier models and capacitance components have been reduced to such an extent that detection response time is 1/20 of earlier models. These features help resolve issues such as higher costs and larger board size due to an increase in ECU capacitors.

A battery monitoring IC needs to have low current consumption to be able to continuously monitor battery voltage. However, the S-19114 Series have few resistance and capacitance components that impact detection response time and current consumption during operation is a low 2.0µA typ. This makes the series ideal for low standby current systems where continuous sensing is required.

Another advantage is that the S-19114 Series is housed in the ultra-compact HSNT-6(2025) (1.96x 2.46x0.5mm) package making it a product that amply meets today’s ever-increasing need for smaller automotive devices.