With electric and hybrid vehicles becoming increasingly popular in both passenger cars and public transportation, additional measures are needed to ensure passenger safety. As HV battery usage continues to grow, automatic systems must be available to handle specific emergencies such as battery explosion or fire from equipment damage.
Even in case of moderate crashes, there's the concrete risk of current to leak from the HV battery into the metal chassis or frame, exposing occupants, rescue workers and first responders to fatal electrical shock
ST’s dedicated passive safety solutions based on pyroswitches can activate specific countermeasures such as battery disconnects or fire extinguishers to remove or reduce the risks related to crash events involving HEV/PHEV and BEV. Our pyrotechnical safety switch system triggers controlled micro- explosions, cutting the wiring between the high-voltage battery unit and the rest of the vehicle, thus reducing or eliminating the flow of current and risk of electric shock or fire
Sensors such as accelerometers, flame, smoke and thermal sensors can communicate with the vehicle’s airbag system, battery management system or vehicle control unit to activate the proper countermeasure.
ST’s passive safety products serve the global automotive market with several millions of parts produced annually. Our airbag systems and deployment drivers are well established robust products with many years of proven in field experience.
