Sensirion has announced the general market availability when it comes to its STC42A, a choice for hydrogen detection in battery thermal runaway and hydrogen leakage applications.
Notably, the STC42A from Sensirion is now available for order via the global network of trustworthy channel partners and has been developed specifically for automotive applications that demand dependable hydrogen concentration measurements within clean air.
The digital thermal conductivity hydrogen sensor STC42A from Sensirion is developed for automotive battery management systems – BMS so as to enable early detection of thermal runaway in electric vehicles. The STC42A is AEC-Q100 Grade 2 qualified, in accordance with the most rigorous automotive reliability and strength, and especially designed for safety-related battery applications. The sensor is equipped with a digital I2C interface and allows for autonomous communication to an external SHT41A humidity/temperature sensor. The I2C controller interface is used to read the humidity and temperature data from the SHT41A sensor and then directly feed it into the STC42A, which allows for the real-time absolute moisture compensation of the hydrogen signal.
The STC42A is factory calibrated and offers a completely compensated digital hydrogen output leveraging the thermal conductivity sensing expertise of Sensirion. The validated thermal conductivity measurement principle offers excellent robustness and stability over time at minimal power consumption, which makes the STC42A a dependable sensing solution as far as safety-critical thermal runaway detection across all battery systems are concerned.
STC42A from Sensirion is a member of the STC4x family and offers enhanced hydrogen gas sensoring for thermal runaway uses. It is indeed the ideal solution for hydrogen detection within battery thermal runaway and hydrogen leakage applications. The primary advantage of the STC42A is its superior performance, which is based on CMOSens® sensor technology by Sensirion, which integrates the sensor element, signal processing, and digital calibration into one CMOS chip.
According to product manager for battery state monitoring, Pascal Erne, “With the STC42A, Sensirion provides an automotive hydrogen sensor for detecting early gas emissions associated with thermal runaway in batteries. This supports system designers in triggering timely safety measures in line with emerging 5‑minute warning requirements defined by relevant safety standards.”