SK On, Autosilicon develop battery management chip

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SK On, Autosilicon develop battery management chip

Published: 04 Apr. 2022, 18:30 Updated: 04 Apr. 2022, 18:53

An employee holds a battery management chip jointly developed by SK On and Autosilicon. [SK ON]

Korean battery maker SK On developed a battery management chip for electric vehicles (EVs), the company announced Monday.

SK On, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SK Innovation, developed the battery monitoring integrated circuit with local EV chip and battery supplier Autosilicon since 2019 and plans to start mass-production in May, the company said.

A battery monitoring integrated circuit, or BMIC, manages hundreds of battery cells in an EV or energy storage system, stabilizing the system and boosting charging efficiency. EVs are normally equipped with more than 10 BMICs each.

The new BMIC was granted the highest Automotive Safety Integrity Level, defined by the ISO 26262 standard of the International Organization for Standardization.

The company explained that its BMIC measures battery voltage twice as precisely as existing products on the market, and can operate even in temperatures of 125 degrees Celcius (257 degrees Fahrenheit).

The chip constantly monitors the battery cells even in an emergency situation where the battery monitoring system is partly shut down, and transmits data at twice the speed with half the components compared to existing models, SK On said.

Korean EV makers, which have been relying on imported BMIC, will be able to procure the chips locally. The newly developed chips will be exclusively supplied through SK On, although for how long was not disclosed.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]