Sensor Tips

Temperature sensors in electric vehicle (EV) battery packs measure temperature only where they are mounted. Nevertheless, a battery management system (BMS) must use limited local readings to reconstruct the pack temperature field, detect developing hot spots, and drive cooling decisions that reflect cell-level conditions. This article reviews how sensor placement and density affect BMS monitoring accuracy, hot-spot detection, and EV thermal management.

Texas Instruments (TI) has introduced the TMCS2100-Q1, a multiaxial coreless Hall-effect current sensor for HEV and EV traction inverters. The device measures magnetic fields on horizontal and vertical axes and is specified for displacement error below 1% at 0.4 mm movement and as low as 0.25% at 0.1 mm, which supports tighter inverter current control under vibration and changing load conditions.

Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. has introduced the Vishay Semiconductors VCNL36829UM, a fully integrated short-distance proximity sensor in a 1.6 mm x 1.0 mm x 0.35 mm transparent mold package with VCSEL, photodiode, ASIC, 16-bit ADC and smart dual I²C slave address. The sensor supports a 50 mm operating range, 14-bit proximity resolution, sunlight immunity up to 200 klx, 5 μA idle current and a 1.65 V to 2.0 V supply range for battery-powered and space-constrained consumer designs.

Microchip Technology has released Revision 2.0 of its PolarFire® FPGA Ethernet Sensor Bridge, an HSB-enabled board for standardized sensor integration using NVIDIA Holoscan Sensor Bridge technology. The board supports up to four cameras, 10Gb Ethernet-based architectures, USB-C power, MIPI® CSI-2®, I²C®, UART and GPIO interfaces, with expansion support for SLVS-EC™ 2.0, 12G-SDI, HDMI® and DisplayPort™.

Danisense has introduced the DP12IP current transducer for isolated DC and AC current measurement in PCB-mounted power electronics. Based on closed-loop compensated fluxgate technology, the DP12IP measures up to 18 A with a maximum linearity error of 10 ppm and supports measurement resistors up to 100 Ω at full scale.

Magnetic Sensor Systems has introduced the R-10-200-CWM Series clockwise, forward shaft extension rotary solenoids with 18 AWG winding configurations from 20 to 37 AWG. The 2.00-in.-diameter solenoids provide 40° of clockwise rotation, support 100% to 10% duty-cycle options and deliver starting torque from 11 oz-in. to 49 oz-in., depending on winding selection.

Sensata Technologies has introduced the Active + Passive PyroFuse, the STPS500P Series, for high-voltage protection in electric vehicles, commercial transportation, charging infrastructure and industrial electrification systems.

Implementing robust sensor security is essential in connected systems. Compromised sensors can feed corrupt, inaccurate data directly into operational systems, leading to devastating real-world failures, catastrophic physical damage, safety concerns, and compromised decision-making. The increasing number of sensors in modern systems and the diversity of sensor types across applications like machine learning (ML) and automation present an expanding attack surface that can be invaded by bad actors.

Melexis has introduced the MLX91229, a conventional-Hall current sensor with a sigma-delta digital output for current sensing from 200 A to 2000 A in electrically noisy automotive environments. Designed for traction inverters and other high-power vehicle systems, the IC shifts signal transmission from analog to digital to help maintain signal integrity where EMI, longer PCB traces and wiring can affect measurement accuracy.

STMicroelectronics has introduced the ST FlightSense™ VL53L9, a direct Time-of-Flight 3D LiDAR module for robotics, industrial automation, smart buildings, AR/VR, and healthcare systems. The module provides 2,268 resolution zones in a 54 x 42 array, a 54° x 42° field of view, ranging from less than 5 cm to 9 m, up to 1% accuracy, and frame rates up to 100 fps, with MIPI and I3C interfaces plus dual 1.2 V and 3.3 V supply support.