Linear has battery monitor for hybrid/EV applications
1 min read
Linear Technology has unveiled the LTC6804 battery monitor for hybrid and electric vehicles, as well as other high voltage, stacked battery systems.
The LTC6804 is designed to measure up to 12 series connected battery cells at voltages up to 4.2V with 16bit resolution and better than 0.04% accuracy. This high precision is maintained over time, temperature and operating conditions by a sub surface Zener voltage reference similar to references used in precision instrumentation.
When stacked in series, the LTC6804 enables the measurement of every battery cell voltage in large high voltage systems. Six operating modes are available to optimise update rate, resolution and the low pass response of the built in 3rd order noise filter. In the fastest mode, Linear says all cells can be measured within 290µsec.
Multiple LTC6804s can be interconnected over long distances and operated simultaneously, using Linear's two wire isoSPI interface. Integrated into every LTC6804, the isoSPI interface is said to provide rf noise immunity up to 1Mbps and up to 100metres of cable.
"The LTC6804 combines 30 years of analogue experience with hard earned lessons in automotive battery management," commented Mike Kultgen, design manager for Linear Technology. "On the bench, or on the road, this part delivers outstanding performance."
Along with the LTC6804, Linear Technology is also introducing the LTC6820 isoSPI transceiver. The LTC6820 enables bidirectional transmission of the Serial Peripheral Interface bus (SPI) across an isolated barrier up to 100 metres. With the LTC6820, the SPI data is encoded into a differential signal, which is then transmitted via twisted pair and a simple, inexpensive Ethernet transformer.
