Radiation Hardened, Programmable Battery Analog Front-End ASIC

In response to NASAs S13.07 SBIR solicitation, Alphacore will develop a radiation-hardened, high accuracy Battery Analog Front-End (B-AFE) Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) that can implement low-noise, high dynamic range, low-offset offset-drift Coulomb Counting (CC), high precision temperature and terminal voltage measurement embedded with Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS). The B-AFE ASIC will be programmable and flexible to support various energy density (200 Wh/kg and 200 Wh/l) and battery state estimation approaches. Alphacore will leverage existing designs and evaluation results to develop a CMOS-based, radiation-hardened (to 1 Mrad total ionizing dose) Coulomb counting ADC-based ASIC. To significantly improve the radiation tolerance, Alphacore will implement the battery monitoring circuitry in the XFAB 180nm high-voltage (HV) silicon-on-insulator (SOI) process. SOI processes are known to provide excellent benefits in terms of SEEs, but TID has been a problem. Alphacore has already fabricated and TID tested three important building blocks of the system, LDO, BGR and Flyback converter and hardness beyond 300krad(Si) was proven. Phase II efforts will focus on layout, integration and CMOS fabricating and testing of the designed CC and EIS system IC, incorporating necessary risk reduction tests, detailed design reviews, and test plans. The principal Phase II deliverable will be a prototype B-AFE system provided to NASA for reliability and durability testing. The CC+EIS concept developed in Phase I will be adapted to full-size cells to assess system capabilities over a dynamic range of charge/discharge cycles. Long-term testing, following NASA ESTA standards, will be employed to evaluate the safety and performance of the full-scale design. During Phases II and III, algorithm development for SoC estimation of Li/CFx primary cell batteries will commence, utilizing direct calculation, model-based, and data-driven approaches. The proposed Battery Analog Front-End (B-AFE) ASIC will provide the user with various programmability and scalability options, including sensing gain, ADC dynamic range, sampling-rate, and calibration options for DC offsets, noise, filtering bandwidths. The proposed B-AFE would enable state estimation options for various primary cell chemistries, Li-CFx, Li-MnO2, Li/SOCl2, and Li/SO2. Model-based SOC estimation methods utilize a state-space battery model to design an observer for real-time SOC estimation. In its most common use, the extended Kalman filter (EKF) provides an estimate of the SOC of a battery based on the electrical circuit model of the battery in mostly EV applications. However, these methods require an accurate electrical circuit battery model, where accurate impedance parameters, such as resistances and capacitances vary with the SOC, temperature, current, aging, etc., of the battery cell. None of the state of the art COTS approaches utilize the complex impedance of the battery under test. Objective 1: Design, layout and extracted simulations EIS Sigma Delta ADC and High-Voltage Stimulus DAC Objective 2: Schematic level design, layout and parasitic extracted simulations for the top-level B-AFE ASIC  Objective 3: Design of FFT-Free Impedance Spectrum Extraction Algorithm Objective 4: Fabrication and characterization of the proposed B-AFE ASIC DELIVERABLES  •    Kickoff meeting within 30 days of contract start •    Technical review within six months •    Progress reports •    Final report •    B-AFE ASIC MCP samples to NASA

Our battery monitor will benefit outer planet surface and aerial missions including missions listed in the 2023-2032 National Academies decadal survey: outer planet missions operating at extreme low temperatures (UOP, Enceladus Orbilander); future lander and rover missions looking to use higher specific energy batteries and need battery health monitoring on icy moons and Mars (Mars Deep Time Rover); and power management needs under temperatures of -230 to +120 °C for missions to the lunar surface (Artemis). Non-NASA applications for Alphacore’s battery monitor include space-based defense missions with small-satellites for the U.S. Space Force and missile defense. Soldier-portable battery applications, such as radio communication, electric vehicles, location trackers, and laser range finders and night-vision goggles all stand to benefit from our fast and real-time diagnostics tool.

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