Analog Devices claims this to be the first battery management based on the wireless technology. General Motors have become one of the first car makers to use this system
Analog Devices (ADI) has announced the industry’s first wireless battery management system (wBMS) The company mentioned that this is the first wireless battery management system available for production electric vehicles, and it will debut on General Motors’ production vehicles powered by Ultium batteries.
“The transition of battery packs from wired to wireless connectivity enables automotive manufacturers to scale their electric vehicle platforms across multiple vehicle models to meet growing consumer demand. Our wBMS solution not only simplifies manufacturing, but also allows new systems to be built on wireless data, accelerating the entire industry towards a sustainable future,” said Patrick Morgan, vice president, Automotive at Analog Devices.
Saving volume in the battery pack
The implementation of ADI’s wBMS, as the company said, eliminates the traditional wired harness, saving up to 90 per cent of the wiring and up to 15 per cent of the volume in the battery pack. ADI’s wBMS includes all integrated circuits, hardware and software for power, battery management, RF communication, and system functions in a single system-level product that supports ASIL-D safety and module-level security building upon ADI’s BMS battery cell measurement technology.
Additional system features, as per ADI, enable batteries to measure and report their own performance, increasing early failure detection, and enabling optimized battery pack assembly. The data can be monitored remotely throughout the battery lifecycle – from assembly to warehouse and transport through installation, maintenance and into a second-life phase. ADI and General Motors recently announced a collaboration, bringing the wBMS technology to General Motors’ Ultium battery platform.
“We are pleased to collaborate with ADI to take the wBMS technology to production as part of our ground-breaking Ultium battery platform. ADI’s wBMS technology enables the more widespread electrification of our fleet, and we look forward to a continued collaboration with ADI to deliver innovation in safety, quality, and performance for the future,” said Kent Helfrich, Executive Director, Global Electrification and Battery Systems at General Motors.
