According to data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) on automobile production and sales in July 2021, the production and sales of new energy vehicles continued to grow both month-on-month and year-on-year, both reaching record highs. From January to July, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles reached 10%, and the trend of shifting from traditional vehicles to new energy vehicles is becoming increasingly evident. China's recently released 14th Five-Year Plan proposes to make breakthroughs in key technologies for new energy vehicles, such as high-safety power batteries, high-efficiency drive motors, and high-performance power systems.
So how can we achieve these technological breakthroughs?
In the area of high-efficiency drive motors, the adoption of third-generation wide-bandgap power semiconductors (SiC) is expected to significantly improve drive efficiency. STMicroelectronics, a leading global automotive semiconductor supplier, began its foray into the new energy vehicle sector many years ago. In 2019, it officially established a New Energy Vehicle Technology Innovation Center and launched a comprehensive solution for SiC traction motor inverters. This solution was developed according to the functional safety standard ISO 26262 and meets ASIL D level. The AutoSAR-based software architecture and model-based software algorithms facilitate early-stage solution evaluation and subsequent development for customers, greatly shortening the entire R&D cycle.
ST's SiC traction motor inverters utilize the highly reliable, high-performance PowerPC architecture MCU, the SPC58NN84, which supports ASIL D functional safety. This MCU features three 200MHz cores (two with lockstep functionality), 6Mbyte Flash memory, a third-generation GTM module, abundant peripheral resources including CAN FD/SPI/Ethernet, and six high-precision Σ-ADCs (supporting two-channel software decoding). The SPC58NN84 also supports network security with a hardware encryption module.
To achieve ASIL D rating, the L9396 is an essential system base chip (SBC). The L9396 features five power outputs: a configurable voltage output (0.8-5V) up to 1A for the microcontroller, independent 3.3V/5V peripheral I/O power, 250mA for peripherals and ADCs, and independent power for multi-channel sensors. To meet functional safety requirements, the L9396 also features both question-and-answer and window-based watchdog timestamps, safety status outputs, and diagnostic functionality on all power rails.
To match different types of IGBTs and SiC, STMicroelectronics has launched the new generation of high-performance driver chip, the L9502E. This driver chip also supports ASIL D systems and has a minimum drive current capability of 10A. The L9502E integrates a flyback controller, a 10-bit isolated ADC, 5MHz SPI communication, redundant fault alarm hardwired lines, and a series of reliable diagnostic and protection functions. In addition, the L9502E integrates a unique active bus voltage discharge function, which can effectively reduce system costs.
ST's automotive-grade high-performance SiC series products can meet customers' needs for different power and voltage specifications.
