Introduction

• Who

  • Andrew Chai Engineer

• Background

  • Something like

    • https://p-systems.io/product/power_module

    • https://store.p-systems.io/products/power-module?variant=41060173086897

• What

  • 30.5x30.5mm mounting pattern

  • 5V @ 4 A buck buck capability

  • high current pass through with 2x XT60s

    • 100 A pulsed current capability

    • 60 A max continuous current capability

  • pre accurate current sensing

  • Use the custom CAN circuit designed for ESC CAN Adapter .

    • EFS would need to dev for it but nws.

  • Single JST GH four pin to CAN x port on pixhawk

  • Balance Lead Connection

    • Measuring each cell voltage would be nice as well to improve SoC calculation.

    • would need 2x headers if we run two 6S batts in parallel which seems to be POR as of June 2024 for Fixed Wing 2025

  • Stretch requirement: Active balancing (Can be done, some extra circuitry required and must be taken into consideration in regards to component sourcing and which IC to use)

    • could be cool if there’s board space for it, hmm extra weight and risk tho, maybe not, EE lead thoughts

    • more work for firmware to develop cell balancing algorithm

    • save for next rev probably

  • Input Voltage Range: 26V to 12V

• Target Use

  • Would be for Fixed Wing 2025 .

• Why

  • few COTS options with CAN

  • few COTS options with 30.5x30.5mm mounting pattern

  • Fun for EFS dev, opens doors for more complex SoC calculation

Electrical Architecture

Features:

• Buck + LDO (Power Module)

• Current Sense

• Active Cell Balancing

• Cell monitoring and measurement (SoC calculations)

• MCU for custom cell balancing algorithm + cell input calculations + interfacing with IC

• CAN circuitry

Elec System Design

Component Sourcing

Buck:

• https://www.digikey.ca/en/products/filter/power-management-pmic/voltage-regulators-dc-dc-switching-regulators/739?s=N4IgjCBcpgTAnFUBjKAzAhgGwM4FMAaEAeygG0RZYB2MeWEAXSIAcAXKEAZTYCcBLAHYBzEAF8iAVmoBmJCFSRMuQiXLgAHABZJ8DSCJgNANi1gADAc0aNdK3XOSL9%2BubCSXW7Vpezqlwz1qeGMrWHNzWDgwt0kNBiIoyRlHJlYOSG4%2BIVEJcGpg%2BUVlfCJSSApYLXgwWjSQdk4eARFxMTEgA

• Filter for voltage regulators rated between 30V-40V max input voltage (larger than expected 26V), 4A output current, and 5V output voltage

• https://www.digikey.ca/en/products/detail/alpha-omega-semiconductor-inc/AOZ1284PI/3973647?_gl=1*1btu0z8*_up*MQ..&gclid=CjwKCAjwnK60BhA9EiwAmpHZw27SU0BE88KlHdxr9NsAO4rO5YNk5dtL7PkYqBgAR_-V20XOpyAJpRoCcAUQAvD_BwE

  • 3V to 36V input voltage range

  • up to 95% efficiency

  • 4A continuous output current

  • adjustable switching frequency

  • adjustable output voltage (0.8V to 30V)

• AOZ1284PI Buck Design:

• Exposed Pad (Vin Exposed pad - pin number on symbol??? is this ok in general for a vin pin to be an exposed pad?)

• What should I use for switching frequency? From what I’ve seen online, higher switching frequency means I can use smaller inductors and capacitors but increases losses.

  • Going to use 1M switching frequency for reduced board space. Seems to be a typo/mistake in the datasheet as the 5000 should actually be 55000 or 52500, so in theory RF should be around 47.5 to 50 kOhms. I will be using a 47k resistor because Digikey and Yageo do not offer a 46.6k

• Vout = 0.8 * (1 + R1/R2)

• 5V output requires standard resistor values of: R1 = 52.3k, R2 = 10k (recommended from datasheet) this yields around 4.984V

• alternatively, R1 = 53.6k yields around 5.088V (Would it be better to design for slightly higher than 5V for some error compensation?)

• Even better, 10.5K, 2K gives exactly 5V (strange that this was not recommended by the D.S)

• “The combination of R1 and R2 should be large enough to avoid drawing excessive current from the output, which will cause power loss” - This says nothing about the resistor values being too large so I will go ahead with larger values as it allows for a more accurate 5V rail

• given this case: 105k and 20k would also be ideal

• standard resistor values source: https://www.rfcafe.com/references/electrical/resistor-values.htm

Component Calculations

https://www.ti.com/lit/an/slva477b/slva477b.pdf?ts=1721655939318&ref_url=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.google.com%252F

Input Capacitor

• Ideally <1% of Vin for ripple voltage so 0.01* (20V or 26V) ripple range: 0.2V to 0.26V

• Cin should be between 3.75uF and 2.39uF, 3.3uF should be fine

  • Will use 4.7uF to reduce input ripple voltage

Output Capacitor

• From online, it seems around 1% of Vout ripple voltage is desirable (lower is better obv)

• Since we’re using X5R and X7R capacitors I’m assuming ESR can be ignored???

• Vout is 5V so 1% is 0.05V would be preferred

• For ripple current 0.2,0.3,0.4 of Iout = 4A (0.8A, 1.2A, 1.6A → 2uF, 3uF, 4uF)

• higher capacitance = less ripple voltage = better

• https://rfcafe.com/references/electrical/capacitor-values.htm

  • Standard cap values within range: 2.2uF, 3.3uF

  • I will be choosing 3.3uF (at 0.3Iout ripple current, this is around 0.9% of output voltage (45mV)

  • 4.7uF also works and this reduce the ripple voltage even more

  • Should be rated for >4A and >5V

Inductor Selection (Section 3 of the TI document)

• Vin = 20 - 26V

• Vout = 5V

• Fs ~ 1MHz

• Ripple Current estimation: IL = (0.2 to 0.4) * 4A = 0.8 to 1.6

• Inductor should be rated to minimum 5A to handle the peak current in the above eqn

• L should be between 2.34uH and 5uH

• After EE meeting, estimation of 0.3Iout for ripple current, inductor should be around 3.125uH to around 3.3uH (same calculations as above)

  • standard inductor values around this range: 2.4, 2.7, 3.0, 3.3, 3.6, 3.9, 4.3, 4.7, 5.1

  • https://www.rfcafe.com/references/electrical/inductor-values.htm

  • will choose a 4.7uH to satisfy the upper bound inductance requirement (original decision)

  • new choice would be 3.3uH

  • https://www.digikey.ca/en/products/detail/sumida-america-inc/0630CDMCCDS-4R7MC/5812458

  • https://www.digikey.ca/en/products/detail/sumida-america-inc/0630CDMCCDS-3R3MC/5812457

Loop Compensation Resistor and Capacitor

• With 4.7uF cap output, and around 10kHz bandwidth (this is 1/100 of the switching frequency but the stack exchange https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/479305/low-cost-buck-smps-with-ic-aoz1284-5v-x-4a-values-for-comp-pin answer verified with sims that around 10kHz is a more realistic achievement (Need to get this verified)

• Rc is about 2050 ohms so 2k resistor should work

• RL is the load resistor value, load resistance = Vout/Iout = 5/4 = 1.25Ohms

• CC is around 2.9375nF so a 3nF cap

Others

• Enable Pin is high between 1.2V and 5V so 3.3V from the AFE IC will be supplied to this pin (filter cap needed??)

• Soft start Pin: “A soft start process begins when the input voltage rises to 3V and voltage on EN pin is HIGH. In soft start process, a 2.5µA internal current source charges the external capacitor at SS. As the SS capacitor is charged, the voltage at SS rises. The SS voltage clamps the reference voltage of the error amplifier, therefore output voltage rising time follows the SS pin voltage. With the slow ramping up output voltage, the inrush current can be prevented. Minimum external soft-start capacitor 850pF is required, and the corresponding soft-start time is about 200µs.”

  • will be using 10nF cap, was available on the WARG component library (relatively similar value)

• Schottky Diode:

  • To reduce the losses due to the forward voltage drop and recovery of diode, Schottky diode is recommended to use. The maximum reverse voltage rating of the chosen Schottky diode should be greater than the maximum input voltage, and the current rating should be greater than the maximum load current.

  • Using the SK54A-LTP Diode which is already in the warg component library

  • rated for 40V @ 5A which should be enough for 26Vin and 4A current out

Cell Monitor IC

• https://www.digikey.ca/en/products/filter/power-management-pmic/battery-management/713?s=N4IgjCBcoMwGxVAYygMwIYBsDOBTANCAPZQDaIMAnAOxwBMIhV11MjFlAHJQAztW8%2BTSrwCs-EWAaEpYACxghIaqOp05lEAF1CABwAuUEAGV9AJwCWAOwDmIAL6OgA

• https://www.digikey.ca/en/products/filter/power-management-pmic/battery-management/713

• https://www.digikey.ca/en/products/detail/analog-devices-inc/LTC6810IG-2-3ZZPBF/9658988

• https://www.digikey.ca/en/products/detail/rochester-electronics-llc/AD7280WBSTZ-RL/12102176

• https://www.ti.com/product/BQ76952?bm-verify=AAQAAAAJ_____84hAJ8NJ5_BycGi-Yrn59b_1msRiG6fRmhHUSiBC6aDqGa98i8RWsSF98Aj-Xo8jIN0fN2hwGAmJmzHLewIK74W-5tLc2wlH0ReluO6MvxTB7Ma71vdbcpDfP1ss16IZQiYg4-BsEnTGjWBcXNVGAMMO9jHVWsOJkdsIjOXusuRGOXGOdw6XHabzrknTH2tvpkpmz2Sd_mTL_aHYv6a5toRFRJoyXq3GWQP859SV9Exslm_TjcPp_ADQoAR4FM5orZu_Ro47pHL8BWuTBZKDitqrhxIvJ5RGn5QRbnjB0OicK4npIhbBqaJF0rEnsw

• https://www.ti.com/product/BQ76925?bm-verify=AAQAAAAJ_____yeqGJxr-sav90uZifqJxu9hEbn3uSR3ocgXRjnzBfqXRBsnLKg0G6dFJQ7CCGSgRfQ4NjwlwddNnfIP8MrH20wHDUOtkq7nb3h5Bhr1LKAijTue-IrMucncEvLeHCkJirMdWhFdYCmuwHorrL0BqOZuGjDWDCVg_XeDQQ4qWXlwj6xY3bVCAfrgJGj6BsGqlZbNkutugz6UEd72EaRjg48vbwkjc4HGktvDajEvwnKhsfbr-YvMg7b9mhPX7NAyC3ItCJkk241i4D5M5VQTmbeYXnGZYhhfJ9JQgs9IhUr-SIz0RdIZTZLcmcutgEk

  • 3-6s cell monitoring

  • no ADC (connect to MCU and use that one)

  • Current Sense

  • https://www.ti.com/lit/an/slua707/slua707.pdf?ts=1721224314354

  • https://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/bq76925.pdf?ts=1721149729622&ref_url=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.ti.com%252Fproduct%252FBQ76925%253Fbm-verify%253DAAQAAAAJ_____5YKR1hx5n1UVPx3P9KFKvNc7D-WAY2AyIaZsqx4_u4gnc-PFgYljANyKQGpUTue0JfM5vzeyV_xS6_dShsKo0I3Ji7r6eJJdPUEgp8eH89w1dZDehjqdMxEo3wh6JnBESXo7Jo3FQsqzzXn_-B7gLvYyJRSrKWLFHABOIqXKDYspYgR-mN7yX5MvJ4HIKa6qTnuyGfPxZDYqDC0eZq30LbTepT2kxO5uPk2IAoofPhYejI_i8b0DPK_u1rqmWZ2klnmIGO_oMn057aWjJ7EDOggsUJEie5_c2u8jwzN8aUq_FQDj7n3DBEH8eHxm09PbxvGgkgoteWiDbA8bExevTQjHoZSyKyJjZNoKdOyrFQAPtzeTfO8Jw

AFE Design:

• Does D23 need to be implemented if we are using an XT90 Connector?

• STM32

  • Using the STM32L431KCU6 (the same one from Meghan’s CAN adapter circuit)