ST Launches L9962 10-Cell Lithium Battery Management IC

STMicroelectronics (ST) has unveiled a new battery management IC (BMIC) for lithium-ion and lithium-polymer batteries. ST announced the launch of L9962 on the 9th. The product is called the L9962 lithium battery management IC.

The product supports battery packs with up to 10 cells connected in series. It integrates state monitoring, cell balancing, and protection functions.

L9962 is equipped with a 12-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to precisely measure the voltage of each cell. Cell balancing current goes up to 70mA. It is designed to quickly correct voltage deviations between cells, helping improve battery pack efficiency and lifespan.

Target applications include cordless power tools, medical devices, e-bikes, e-scooters, light electric mobility, uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems, and backup energy storage systems.

L9962 continuously measures each cell's voltage based on a programmable loop time. When it detects overvoltage or undervoltage, it automatically activates cell balancing and protection functions, which are designed to support stable battery pack operation.

The device also includes a plausibility check function based on comparing the total stack voltage with the configured number of cells. This helps identify cell configuration abnormalities, reduce voltage deviations within the battery pack, and maintain high voltage measurement accuracy even under various temperature conditions.

L9962 also integrates current measurement functions. Based on its built-in high-precision current sense amplifier, it enables battery stack charge and discharge current measurement using the Coulomb Counting method and can also detect excessive charge and discharge currents.

It also provides short-circuit discharge protection. In production, it can be calibrated with only a single-point calibration, and it maintains 0.25% current measurement accuracy across the full operating temperature range.

The product includes battery temperature management functions and is designed to monitor battery pack temperature using an NTC thermistor. This allows it to detect overheating conditions as well as excessively low temperature conditions.

At the same time, L9962 strengthens low-power features for battery-powered portable products. According to ST, L9962 supports a 5µA standby mode and a 2µA deep-sleep mode, minimizing battery drain when not in use and also during transport.

This configuration makes it possible to extend overall system standby time. It also integrates battery pack fuse management and configurable high-side and low-side predrivers for battery pack relays, reducing the number of external components and simplifying BMS circuit design.

It also has a built-in 3.3V low-dropout regulator (LDO). The LDO remains active even in standby mode and can power a microcontroller, as well as LED indicators and external components.

The host system communicates with L9962 via an I2C interface, and system designers can set key device parameters such as cell voltage measurement intervals through I2C. They can also check battery state of charge (SOC) and battery state of health (SOH) for battery status management.

ST highlighted the applications of L9962, saying it integrates voltage monitoring for battery management systems, current monitoring for battery management systems, temperature monitoring for battery management systems, cell balancing, protection, and low-power management functions into a single IC. ST said it focused on reducing external components and lowering system complexity through this approach.

Source: TECHWORLD · Park Gyu-chan
Original: https://www.epnc.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=406718

References

• https://www.epnc.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=406718