Interface Design for Analog Front-End Chips in Battery Management Systems

This paper presents a design of the communication interface circuit following the I2C and SPI protocol for the analog front-end (AFE) chip within a battery management system(BMS). The AFE interface type can be configured upon AFE powers on and during the normal operation following the host command. Some considerations to reduce transaction are given during the address spacing building. In this work, different commands are categorized, introducing the concept of direct and indirect commands to optimize address space usage. To enhance efficiency and reduce unnecessary data transfers, a block data transfer communication method is defined.The proposed design undergoes initial validation through RTL simulation and is subsequently fabricated using the SMIC 0.18um BCD process. Post-fabrication chip-level testing demonstrates the proper functionality of the AFE communication interface, confirming stable data transmission.