E-Fuse demonstrator comes in six variants for 400–800V battery systems
Microchip Technology’s E-Fuse demonstrator board, enabled by silicon carbide (SiC) technology, is available in six variants for 400-800V battery systems and has a current rating of up to 30 amps.
The E-Fuse demonstrator can detect and interrupt fault currents in microseconds, 100–500 times faster than traditional mechanical approaches because of its high-voltage solid-state design, claimed the company. The fast response time reduces peak short-circuit currents from tens of kilo-amps to hundreds of amps, which can prevent a fault from resulting in a hard failure, it added.
The E-Fuse demonstrator is claimed to provide BEV/HEV OEM designers with a SiC-based technology solution to jumpstart their development process with a faster, more reliable method for protecting power electronics. The E-Fuse solid-state design is said to alleviate long-term reliability concerns about electromechanical devices because there is no degradation from mechanical shock, arcing or contact bounce.
With the E-Fuse demonstrator’s resettable feature, designers can package an E-Fuse in a vehicle without design-for-serviceability constraints. This reduces design complexities and enables flexible vehicle packaging to improve BEV/HEV power system distribution, Microchip claimed.
A built-in Local Interconnect Network (LIN) communication interface enables the configuration of the over-current trip characteristics without needing to modify hardware components, and it reports diagnostic status.
The E-Fuse demonstrator leverages the ruggedness and performance of Microchip’s SiC mosfet technology and PIC microcontrollers’ Core Independent Peripherals (CIPs) with a LIN-based interface. The companion components are automotive-qualified and yield a lower part count and higher reliability over a discrete design.
The E-Fuse demonstrator board is supported by MPLAB X Integrated Development Environment (IDE) to enable customers to quickly develop or debug software. The LIN Serial Analyzer development tool allows customers to send and receive serial messages from a PC to the E-Fuse demonstrator board.
The E-Fuse demonstrator board is available in limited sampling.
