Automotive integrated thermal management system (ITMS)

Electric Water Pumps, Coolant Valves and Expansion play a critical role in the EV Thermal Management, e.g. within the battery cooling and heating circuit and within the refrigerant circuit. These actuators are installed as distributed mechatronic actuators into car vehicle systems nowadays. This means that each actuator has a dedicated ECU and is communicating via LIN bus mainly to the Zone Controller.

This distributed architecture of individual mechatronic actuators can lead to a more complex system, especially if you think off all the individual parts which have to be mounted together individually and also the number of pipes, hoses which have to be connected.

As a consequence, the architecture may pivot towards a higher level of integration which centralizes various actuator functions, water tank, chiller and the electronics in one Integrated Thermal Management System (ITMS). This ITMS will have one ECU controlling various motors (BDC, BLDC, bipolar stepper) and is connected with CAN-FD to Zone Controller.

The advantages of such an Integrated Thermal Management System are reduced complexity & therein faster system integration, lower assembly & material cost and less engineering resources. Ultimately, the overall efficiency increases through less energy losses and better thermal energy distribution.

Infineon’s portfolio of microcontrollers, motor drivers and MOSFETs is the right choice for Integrated Thermal Management Systems. We have developed also a dedicated Evaluation Kit which supports the rapid prototyping of ITMS designs: our Multi Motor Evaluation Kit.