Design of compact modules for battery management

Recently, the use of Lithium-Ion Batteries (LIBs) has been continuously increasing. Today, LIBs can be found in many applications, from low power devices, such as portable electronics, to high-energy systems such as Electric Vehicles (EVs). Over the last decade, Sensichips S.r.l., in collaboration with the University of Pisa, has developed a programmable sensors interface called Sensiplus and I take advantage of the features of this chip to design and test a compact and versatile Cell Management Unit (CMU). This device is capable of (i) monitoring the cell voltage and the chip temperature, (ii) analysing different types of external sensors (e.g., NTC, strain gauge, humidity sensor) and (iii) performing an EIS analysis in a wide frequency range (tens mHz - tens kHz) to extrapolate the cell equivalent circuit. Additionally, the design of a Ultra-Low Voltage 2nd order, switched capacitor, inverter-like Delta-Sigma modulator with a novel ULV fully-differential inverter-like amplifier is described in detail.