Renesas Unveils New Multi-Cell Battery Front End Family for High-Cell Count, High-Voltage Systems

New RAA48920x ICs Speed Battery Development for Mobility, UPS, and Energy Storage Systems With Lower Development Costs and Flexible Cell Balancing

Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE:6723), a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, today introduced a new family of multi-cell full battery front end (BFE) ICs for battery management systems (BMS) built for the larger, high-voltage battery packs that power e-scooters, energy storage, high-voltage power tools, and other high-voltage equipment. The new ICs provide fast, flexible, cell balancing up to 200 mA+, a critical function to enable fast recharging and high utilization in large battery packs with hot plug tolerance up to 62V.

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Multi-Cell Battery Front Ends Streamline Development for High-Cell Count, High-Voltage Systems (Graphic: Business Wire)

“BMS serves as the “brains” of the battery pack, and the increasing adoption of BMS in UPS and the data center is spiking demand for high-performance ICs that can support higher voltage and larger cell battery pack sizes,” said Andrew Cowell, Vice President, Mobility, Infrastructure and IoT Power Business Division at Renesas. “BFEs are a critical part of BMS, and we’ve built our new RAA489206 and RAA489204 ICs with the performance, flexibility, and integration that make it easier than ever for customers to simplify the design process and create robust, cost-effective battery systems for the growing mobility, UPS backup, energy storage markets.”

Designed for higher voltage mobility applications where larger cell count and temperature variance across cells are more likely to lead to cell-to-cell imbalances, the RAA489206 provides full high-side battery protection and monitoring for 4S to 16S cell battery packs. The RAA489204 provides improved daisy chain operation with accelerated device-to-device communication and enhanced diagnostics compared with previous-generation devices, as well as internal cell balancing options and support for the higher voltages and cell count required by UPS systems, grid backup, and other energy storage systems.

The new ICs’ high integration simplifies the design cycle and reduces customers’ system BOM costs significantly, accelerating design and BOM selection time from months to weeks. The ICs also feature extensive built-in self diagnostics, improving their safety functionality, reducing firmware workload, and easing the design burden for meeting safety standards. Pin-to-pin compatibility with Renesas’ previous BFE devices simplifies the design cycle even further, offering customers a quick and seamless migration path to the new BFE ICs.

Key Features of the RAA489206:

• 16 cell voltage measurements
• Internal (10 mA) and external (200 mA) cell balancing options
• Operating voltage range of between 12V and 55V with +/- 10mV voltage measurement accuracy
• Up to 20 cm² board space reduction
• Low-side current sense measurement
• High-side charge/discharge FET battery protection

Key Features of the RAA489204:

• Operating voltage range of between 10V and 65V with +/- 10mV voltage measurement accuracy and +/-190mV pack voltage measurement accuracy
• Measures and performs read-back on all voltages, temperatures, and diagnostics for 112 cells in less than 10ms
• Cell balancing with both internal and external FETs supported
• Up to 6 external thermistor inputs
• Robust, low-power (typically 1mA when transmitting 10% of time) daisy chain communications
• Stackable up to 30 ICs

The RAA489206 and RAA489204 ICs are optimal for robust Battery Management System (BMS) applications. Renesas has designed multiple system architectures using complementary power, analog, and microcontroller offerings to create comprehensive solutions for a variety of applications. This includes a new 20-28 Cell Battery Management System (up to 118V), providing a complete BMS system. Renesas’ Winning Combinations are vetted solutions engineered to help customers accelerate designs and get to market faster. Renesas offers more than 250 Winning Combinations with compatible devices for a wide range of applications and end products. They can be found at renesas.com/win.

Pricing and Availability

Both the RAA489206 and RAA489204 ICs are available now. More details can be found at renesas.com/bfe.

About Renesas Electronics Corporation

Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723) delivers trusted embedded design innovation with complete semiconductor solutions that enable billions of connected, intelligent devices to enhance the way people work and live. A global leader in microcontrollers, analog, power, and SoC products, Renesas provides comprehensive solutions for a broad range of automotive, industrial, Infrastructure, and IoT applications that help shape a limitless future. Learn more at renesas.com. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

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