Amphenol as a leader in the interconnect industry always looks forward to bringing technological developments in a sustainable way. This is one of the major reasons why we develop advanced interconnect solutions that support various components within electric vehicles. The increasing number of vehicles on road leads to huge pollution, for which EVs are a great choice. This allows for greener and safer rides.

Battery Management Systems (BMS) are the heart of any electric vehicle, controlling and managing the battery's performance. The BMS helps in retaining the charger, stabilizing the performance, and improving the battery life under various circumstances. It consistently monitors the lithium-ion battery packs during the charging and discharging sessions and balances the cells within the pack, thus optimizing the performance of the battery and the vehicles. They are also capable of catering to other functions like checking for faults as well as determining available energy and remaining useful lifetime.

The BMS monitors the cell voltage and temperatures and then limits the power input and output, thus protecting it from overheating and overcharging. It communicates to isolate the battery pack from the source and load when necessary. It constantly helps in estimating the battery pack state of charge (SoC) and state of health (SoH) during charging and discharging sessions. Today, advanced BMS calculate the remaining useful life (RUL) of the battery, perform cell balancing, as well as monitor and store historical data.

BMS Architectures

BMS are generally available in both centralized and modular architectures. There will be a master BMS, along with several smaller remote units. In a modular or distributed architecture, the remote cells, which are parallelly connected to the master will control individual cells within the pack. In some cases, they are daisy-chained in series, which delivers higher voltage and increases capacity. This is established to protect the master BMS from damage from quick voltage variations. During such emergencies, the connection to the BMS from the smaller units will be isolated.

Automotive Grade FPC-to-Board Connector

Amphenol provides many interconnect solutions, that add to the reliability and performance of a battery management system. FlexLock^® FPC-to-Board connector is a key solution that is designed with BMS in mind. This compact automotive grade connector is compliant with USCAR-T2V2 specifications. With a nominal current carrying capacity of 3A per contact, they are offered in two pitch sizes of 2.54mm and 3.20mm supporting 10 to 30 positions and 10 to 26 positions respectively. The terminals of these connectors are reflow tin-plated providing low mating and unmating forces. The hold-down feature increases the board grip force, making it vibration-proof and hence ideal for automotive applications like BMS. The Terminal Position Assurance (TPA) ensures proper terminal insertion position and retention and Connector Positioning Assurance (CPA) allows for proper mating and locking.

Learn more about FlexLock^® connectors and other solutions from Amphenol for Battery Management Systems.