“The ZSSC1856 Intelligent Battery Sensor marks ZMDI’s entry into the Battery Power Management Market,” explained Frank Schulze, Business Line Manager Automotive, ZMDI. “We now offer our customers a cost effective sensing solution for energy efficient and fuel saving start/stop vehicles and µHEV with the industry’s smallest foot print.”

The ZSSC1856 is based on a robust POR concept to meet harsh automotive environment requirements and has built-in self-test and diagnostic functions. A calibrated on-chip temperature sensor eliminates the need for calibration of external components. During sleep-mode, the ZSSC1856 periodically monitors the discharge of the battery. Measurement cycles and different wake-up conditions like current, voltage or temperature thresholds are user controlled.

The internal 18-bit Sigma/Delta-ADC with on-chip voltage reference features two input channels. One channel is for measuring IBAT via the voltage drop at the external shunt resistor. The second channel is used to measure VBAT and the temperature. An ARM core, a highly reliable 96 kB flash/EE memory with ECC and 8 kB SRAM, is available to execute customer specific software for calculating the battery states. The device communication interface supports LIN 1.3, 2.0 and 2.1 specifications.

Designed for low power consumption, the ZSSC1856 uses less than 100μA in sleep mode, in normal mode it operates with 10 to 20 mA. The battery sensor IC can be supplied with voltages from 4.2 to 18V and is directly connected to the vehicle’s battery. The ZSSC1856 is AEC-Q100 qualified and specified for temperatures from -40 to +125°C. The part will be priced at 3.84 EUR ($5.40) for low volume. An evaluation kit, application notes and samples are available.

More information about the ZSSC1856 Intelligent Battery Sensor IC at www.zmdi.com/battery_management