Linear Technology Unveils New Battery Stack Monitor

US-based company Linear Technology has recently rolled out the LTC6811 high voltage battery stack monitor, a drop-in replacement for the LTC6804. The product boasts higher performance and is offered with 25 percent lower price.

LTC6811 is a complete battery measuring IC for electric/hybrid vehicles incorporating a deep buried Zener voltage reference, 1Mbps isolated serial interface, 16-bit delta-sigma ADCs, and high voltage multiplexers. It is claimed to measure up to 12 series-connected battery cell voltages with better than 0.04 percent precision. In the fastest ADC mode, it is said that all cells can be measured within within 290µsec.

Meanwhile, for huge battery packs, a number of LTC6811s can be interconnected and operated at the same time using Linear’s 2-wire isoSPI interface. This built-in interface is claimed to offer electrically isolated, RF noise immune communication for data rates of up to 1Mbit/ps. The use of twisted pair enables many LTC6811s to be connected in a daisy chain to one host processor, which is claimed to enable the measurement of hundreds of cells in high voltage battery stacks.

The all-new LTC6811 comes in an 8 x 12mm surface mount SSOP package and works across a temperature range from -40 to 125°C.