Title：Integrated Circuits for Battery Diagnosis and Management Systems: Now and Future
Location: Grand Ballroom, 4th Floor, Crowne Plaza Kunming City Centre
Time: 8:30-9:15, Oct. 24, 2025, Friday
Speaker: Dr. Young-Suk Son, CTO and Head of Research Center, Autosilicon, Seoul, Korea

Abstract: The stagnation of the lithium-ion battery (LIB) application industry may have less to do with global economic or environmental factors, and more to do with the slow advancement of battery diagnostic and prognostic technologies—a field firmly within the realm of battery electronics. In particular, the limited technical maturity and lack of compelling validation of these technologies have hindered their adoption in the marketplace. Viewing this issue through the lens of integrated circuit (IC) engineering provides a clearer and more actionable perspective. This talk will explore the topic concisely from a circuit theory–oriented standpoint. First, it will revisit the evolution of AFE (Analog Front-End) and BMIC (Battery Monitoring IC) technologies—deployed since around 2006 to monitor voltage, current, and temperature in high-voltage battery packs—and critically assess how their functionality and performance have evolved, prompting a re-evaluation of their current developmental trajectory. Second, it will present a circuit-theoretical interpretation of various battery diagnostic methodologies, regardless of their naming conventions, and outline potential pathways toward greater convergence in battery diagnosis and management. Third, it will explain why battery diagnostics are inherently challenging from a circuit perspective, focusing on nonlinearity, path dependency, and hidden-state characteristics, and propose requirements for impedance-based diagnostic datasets that can bridge the gap between physical complexity and algorithmic reliability. Finally, it will review practical implementations of impedance-based diagnostic and prognostic technologies, and highlight—through a circuit design lens—the key challenges that must be addressed to enable their successful adoption in commercial BMS applications.

Bio: 

Dr. Young-Suk Son received the B.S. degree from Kyung-Pook National University, Daegu, South Korea, in 1994, the M.S. degree in electrical engineering from Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, South Korea, in 1996, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, South Korea, in 2008. From 1996 to 2001, he was with SK Hynix Semiconductor, Cheongju, South Korea. From 2002 to 2005, he was with the System LSI Business Division, Samsung Electronics Company Ltd., Yongin, South Korea, as a Senior Engineer, where he was involved in developing single-chip transceiver ICs for GSM/GPRS/EDGE. From 2005 to 2017, he was with LX Semicon, Daejeon, South Korea, as CTO and Head of Research Center, where he was involved in developing numerous state-of-the-art column driver ICs for active-matrix liquid crystal displays (AMLCDs) and active-matrix organic LED (AMOLED) displays. Since 2018, he has been with Autosilicon, Seoul, South Korea, as CTO and Head of Research Center, developing high voltage battery monitoring and diagnostic ICs. By 2022, the company has developed the first ASIL-D certified BMIC chipset in Korea for EV/ESS applications. Dr. Son has received several industry and technical awards, including Korean Semiconductor Day Award from Korea Semiconductor Industry Association (KSIA) and Innovation in Technology Award from the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea (IEEK), respectively, in 2016, and Top Award for 200 billion Won in Sales from Daejeon city in 2011, Samsung Humantech Gold Prize from Samsung Electronics in 2009, and Semiconductor Design Contest Silver Prize from Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) in 2006.