People generally assume that electric vehicles utilize state-of-the-art technology in their components, and the charging pad is no exception. After all, charging is a frequent and essential daily activity. The charging process not only needs to be safe but also as convenient as possible.
The charging port is crucial in this regard, as it's an integral component of the charging process. It's also essential to protect the charging port from environmental and other external influences to extend its lifespan. Besides the manual charging ports that dominate in traditional cars, electric charging ports are becoming increasingly common, especially in electric vehicles. Therefore, upgrading them in terms of both visual appeal and functional details makes sense.
Lighting improves charging operation in the dark
Equipping the charging port with a light source makes it easier for users to plug in the charger in the dark or at dusk. High-efficiency LEDs are recommended because they offer greater design freedom. For example, the color and shape of the LED display can also be used to show information about the charging process and battery status. To achieve these functions, a dedicated IC driver is needed to control the color and brightness of the LEDs.
Elmos' E521.39 is a driver for RGB and RGBWLEDs (Figure 1). This single-chip solution combines an integrated microcontroller with flash memory, a LIN transceiver, and four integrated power supplies, and also supports LIN auto-addressing. Each of the four drivers can drive external loads with currents up to 60 mA, meaning the E521.39 is one of the highest per-channel output current products on the market. Each channel has a 16-bit resolution pulse-width modulation (PWM) generator, and the PWM duty cycle of each output can be set individually via the LIN interface, while temperature and voltage compensation ensure that the RGB LEDs maintain their set colors. In this way, the E521.39 can achieve stable output colors in any weather conditions and can also change colors according to the vehicle's charging status.
Figure 1: Elmos Semiconductor's E521.39 RGBW LED driver features an integrated microcontroller and LIN transceiver, four PWM generators, four current sources, and diagnostic functions.
In sleep mode, this drive typically consumes 15-30 μA across the entire temperature range; for automotive applications, it can maintain the temperature range of -40°C to +125°C required for AEC-Q100 certification.
Non-contact control
For end customers who don't want to be flustered or get their hands dirty, the contactless switch charging cover is another truly unique selling point.
Elmos Semiconductor's E909.21 controller can even perform gesture recognition. Based on Elmos's proven Halios technology, it achieves reliable object detection by comparing the infrared beam reflected from the detected object with a reference beam. The E909.21 boasts high sensitivity, unparalleled immunity to ambient light up to 200,000 lux, and the ability to handle rapid changes in ambient light. Furthermore, this controller requires no calibration throughout the vehicle's entire lifespan. The Halios frequency is scalable up to 1 MHz without interfering with other optical systems (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Elmos Semiconductor’s E909.21 controller uses Halios technology and has high sensitivity, unaffected by rapid changes in ambient light and brightness.
The E909.21 can connect to two receiver drivers and four LED drivers, each with a power of 100 mA, and can also be connected in parallel to handle larger currents. The integrated 16-bit microcontroller features flash memory, SRAM, high-speed I2C, and SPI, and can be programmed via two-wire or four-wire JTAG.
In addition to offering the E909 product family, including the E909.21, Elmos Semiconductor also provides scalable products for other human-machine interface (HMI) concepts. For example, the E909.23 is optimized for gesture control applications on automotive touchscreens. It is also based on Halios technology and features high sensitivity, automatic calibration, and resistance to interference from rapid changes in ambient light and brightness.
Charging baffle with actuator
Of course, non-contact control of the charging baffle also requires an actuator. Typically, the actuator consists of a motor, gears, and a corresponding IC driver. The IC driver's task is to flexibly control the motor, allowing the baffle to open and close smoothly. To consistently determine optimal motor control, the baffle's position must also be monitored.
To address this, Elmos Semiconductor has also introduced a cost-optimized chip, the fully integrated system-on-a-chip (SoC) controller E523.63 (Figure 3). It enables high-precision motor control with drive currents up to 1 A. This controller is designed to drive three-phase brushless motors (BLDC), two-phase stepper motors, or up to two conventional DC motors. To this end, the product integrates a 32-bit Arm Cortex-M23 microcontroller and an analog motor driver in a small TSSOP16-EP package. Its integrated measurement system provides all input signals for sensorless closed-loop control commutation and offers extensive monitoring and diagnostic capabilities.
Figure 3: The E523.63 is an all-in-one chip suitable for low-to-medium power actuators and fan applications.
For high-power applications with drive currents exceeding 1A, Elmos offers the E533.06, a SoC controller based on a 32-bit Arm Cortex-M4 microcontroller that integrates 96 kB of program memory, a state-of-the-art coprocessor, and analog gate drivers in a QFN48 package. Integrated PWM and ADC accelerators enhance the performance of sensorless single-parallel motor control, enabling advanced control algorithms such as low-CPU-load field-guided control (FOC). Both the E523.63 and E533.06 are AEC-Q100 certified and compliant with ISO26262 (ASILB). They feature a wide operating temperature range from -40°C to +150°C. Thanks to the microcontroller, all functional ICs are flexible enough to adapt to new systems and innovations, meeting future requirements.
