Analog Devices Revolutionizes Automotive Battery Monitoring with Highly Integrated Mixed-Signal IC.

New Precision Battery Monitor Family Dramatically Reduces Battery Failures Caused by the Power Demands of Safety, Infotainment and Navigation Systems in Today's Automobiles

NORWOOD, Mass. -- Analog Devices, Inc. (NYSE: ADI), a global leader in high-performance semiconductors for signal-processing applications, today announced a breakthrough technology that significantly reduces automotive system failures resulting from faulty or discharged batteries. The advent of electronic entertainment, safety, navigation and power train systems, coupled with the need to ensure critical functions such as engine start-up, are taxing automotive batteries more than ever before. Industry analysts expect the trend will continue, with electronic components and sub-systems accounting for 40% of the cost of a mid-sized vehicle by 2010. In fact, 60 percent of today's automotive electronics malfunctions can be attributed to defective or discharged batteries, according to The Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club, Europe's largest motoring organization. To address this problem, Analog Devices used its precision analog microcontroller technology to develop a family of solutions that monitors battery capacity and intelligently manages power distribution in automotive electrical systems to prevent battery drainage and failure.

Designed to precisely measure battery voltage, current and temperature, the new ADuC703x family determines the battery's state-of-charge (SOC) and state-of-health (SOH) and uses this data to control battery charging and discharging profiles. As a result, the ADuC703x family ensures longer battery life and better dependability, while providing priority to critical automotive functions.

"Analog Devices' ability to combine precision analog functions with digital circuitry made them the obvious choice for an integrated solution for intelligent battery sensing," said Andreas Heim, BMW, in Germany. "This new device family replaces more expensive and less accurate solutions using multiple discrete components. Automotive system designers now have an integrated solution that better enables a level of battery management to ensure critical tasks are always performed, eliminate breakdowns due to a flat battery and help prolong battery life."

Powered directly from the car battery, and conveniently located on the negative battery pole to provide significant cost and space savings, the single-chip ADuC703x simplifies battery monitoring system design by integrating a number of components, including analog-to-digital converters (ADCs); a microcontroller; a local interconnect network (LIN) transceiver; embedded flash memory; an on-chip PGA (programmable gain amplifier) that provides a wide range of current measurements; on-chip attenuation resistors for direct battery voltage measurement and external or on-chip temperature sensing. The result is a precision battery monitor that offers a cost-efficient, smaller and simpler design alternative to discrete implementations consisting of a standalone processor, LIN transceiver, low drop-out regulator (LDO) and analog front end (AFE).

"The profusion of new safety, entertainment, navigation and power train systems in today's car relies on more sophisticated electronic subsystems," said Mike Britchfield, Product Line Director, Precision Signal Processing, Analog Devices. "These exciting new features all improve automotive performance, but in every case demand exceptional battery management capabilities, leading to increased reliability and longer life. The level of integration provided by the ADuC703x family effectively meets these needs in a single-chip IC that is easier to use, higher performance and more cost effective than the existing patchwork solutions used today."

About the ADuC703x Family of Precision Battery Monitors

The ADuC703x family provides accurate, continuous measurement of battery state, even while the engine is off, while consuming as little as 300 [eth]-A in low-power mode and less than 10 mA at 10 MHz in normal operating mode. The devices' 16-bit sigma-delta ADCs measure battery voltage (direct connection, no external attenuation required) in the range of 3.5- to 18-V and battery current from less than 1 mA to 1500 A. Combined with an on-chip PGA and a temperature sensor input, the ADuC703x allows the system integrator to determine the battery's SOC and SOH using a proprietary algorithm that resides in the monitor chip's flash memory. The information is then communicated via the on-chip LIN 2.0 (slave) compliant transceiver to the ECU (electronic control unit).

The new battery monitor family includes a dual-ADC version (ADuC7030/ ADuC7033) that monitors voltage and temperature in series and a version equipped with three ADCs (ADuC7032) that allows simultaneous voltage and temperature monitoring. All of the ADCs have an 8-kHz maximum conversion rate. The current-measuring ADC has a fully differential buffered input, the ability to independently monitor battery current in power-down mode and noise performance of 60 nV rms at low conversion rates. An on-chip FIFO (ADuC7032 only) can store multiple voltage and current conversions when the core is busy.

The processing engine at the core of the ADuC703x series is an ARM7TDMI with a core clock rate that is programmable to a maximum of 20 MHz. The parts can be programmed (in-circuit) via a JTAG (Joint Test Action Group) or LIN interface, with flash storage retention of 20 years at 85 degrees C. The new devices support a maximum power supply of 33 V with all specifications applying over the range of 3.5 V to 18 V.

Availability and Pricing

All devices in the ADuC703x family are sampling now with full production scheduled for November 2006. The operating temperature range is -40 degrees C to +125 degrees C with all specifications applicable up to +115 degrees C. The table includes pricing information for each device:

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For more information, visit www.analog.com/pr/ADuC7030.

About Analog Devices

Innovation, performance, and excellence are the cultural pillars on which Analog Devices has built one of the most long-standing, high-growth companies within the technology sector. Acknowledged industry-wide as the world leader in data conversion and signal conditioning technology, Analog Devices serves over 60,000 customers around the world, representing virtually all types of electronics equipment. Celebrating more than 40 years as a leading global manufacturer of high-performance integrated circuits used in analog and digital signal processing applications, Analog Devices, Inc. is headquartered in Norwood, Massachusetts, and employs approximately 8,900 people worldwide. It has manufacturing facilities in Massachusetts, California, North Carolina, Ireland, and the Philippines. Analog Devices' common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and ADI is included in the S&P 500 Index.