# US 10,870,362 B2 · Method for charging an electrical energy storage unit and voltage converter

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- Number: US 10,870,362 B2
- Document ID: US10870362B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 15/739,368
- Filed: 2016-06-23
- Published: 2018-07-05
- Granted: 2020-12-22
- Earliest claimed: 2015-06-24
- Assignees: Valeo Siemens eAutomotive France SAS
- Applicants: Valeo Siemens eAutomotive France SAS
- Inventors: Boris Bouchez; Bruno Condamin; Pierre-Alexandre Chauvenet
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10870362B2

## CPC

- B60L 53/14: Conductive energy transfer
- H02J 7/00: Circuit arrangements for charging or discharging batteries or for supplying loads from batteries
- H02J 7/02: for charging batteries from AC mains by converters
- H02M 3/1584: {with a plurality of power processing stages connected in parallel}
- B60L 2210/14: Boost converters
- H02J 2207/20: Charging or discharging characterised by the power electronics converter
- H02M 3/1586: {switched with a phase shift, i.e. interleaved}
- Y02T 10/70: Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
- Y02T 10/7072: Electromobility specific charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors
- Y02T 90/14: Plug-in electric vehicles
- B60L: PROPULSION OF ELECTRICALLY-PROPELLED VEHICLES (arrangements or mounting of electrical propulsion units or of plural diverse prime-movers for mutual or common propulsion in vehicles B60K1/00, B60K6/20; arrangements or mounting of electrical gearing in vehicles B60K17/12, B60K17/14; preventing wheel slip by reducing power in rail vehicles B61C15/08; dynamo-electric machines H02K; control or regulation of electric motors H02P); SUPPLYING ELECTRIC POWER FOR AUXILIARY EQUIPMENT OF ELECTRICALLY-PROPELLED VEHICLES (electric coupling devices combined with mechanical couplings of vehicles B60D1/64; electric heating for vehicles B60H1/00); ELECTRODYNAMIC BRAKE SYSTEMS FOR VEHICLES IN GENERAL (control or regulation of electric motors H02P); MAGNETIC SUSPENSION OR LEVITATION FOR VEHICLES; MONITORING OPERATING VARIABLES OF ELECTRICALLY-PROPELLED VEHICLES; ELECTRIC SAFETY DEVICES FOR ELECTRICALLY-PROPELLED VEHICLES
- H02J: ELECTRIC POWER NETWORKS; CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS OR SYSTEMS FOR SUPPLYING OR DISTRIBUTING ELECTRIC POWER; SYSTEMS FOR STORING ELECTRIC ENERGY
- H02M: APPARATUS FOR CONVERSION BETWEEN AC AND AC, BETWEEN AC AND DC, OR BETWEEN DC AND DC, AND FOR USE WITH MAINS OR SIMILAR POWER SUPPLY SYSTEMS; CONVERSION OF DC OR AC INPUT POWER INTO SURGE OUTPUT POWER; CONTROL OR REGULATION THEREOF (transformers H01F; dynamo-electric converters H02K47/00; controlling transformers, reactors or choke coils, control or regulation of electric motors, generators or dynamo-electric converters H02P)
- Y02T: CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TO TRANSPORTATION

## Abstract

The invention concerns a method for charging an electrical energy storage unit, in particular installed in a vehicle, from a continuous charging terminal, using a DC/DC voltage converter to adapt the voltage between said continuous charging terminal and said electrical energy storage unit, said DC/DC voltage converter comprising at least two interleaved cells operating out of phase, each cell having respective switches; said method comprising control of the switches of said DC/DC voltage converter by pulse width modulation with a duty cycle to adapt the voltage between said continuous charging terminal and the electrical energy storage unit, said duty cycle having a given value αv that is substantially constant over several interleaving cycles.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method for charging an electrical energy storage unit, in particular installed in a vehicle, from a continuous charging terminal using a DC/DC voltage converter to adapt the voltage between said continuous charging terminal and said electrical energy storage unit said DC/DC voltage converter comprising at least two interleaved cells operating out of phase, each cell having respective switches; said method comprising a control by pulse width modulation of the switches of said DC/DC voltage converter with a duty cycle to adapt the voltage between said continuous charging terminal and the electrical energy storage unit, said duty cycle having a given value αv that is substantially constant over several consecutive interleaving cycles,
wherein said duty cycle has said given value αv that is substantially constant, when the voltage of the electrical energy storage unit is greater than a first threshold and/or less than a second threshold, said thresholds being according to an operating range of the continuous charging terminal.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method according to claim 1, wherein the given value αv of the duty cycle is equal to the product of the inverse of the number of cells of the DC/DC voltage converter by a natural number.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The method according to claim 1, wherein said given value αv of the duty cycle is substantially equal to 50% when the DC/DC voltage converter comprises an even number of cells.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The method according to claim 1, wherein the duty cycle of the DC/DC voltage converter is modified, when the voltage of the electrical energy storage unit is greater than the second threshold.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The method according to claim 1, wherein the duty cycle of the DC/DC voltage converter is equal to 1, when the voltage of the electrical energy storage unit is less than the first threshold.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The method according to claim 1, wherein the first threshold S1 and/or the second threshold S2 are given by the relationships:
S1=VB min X∝v, S2=VB max X∝w, where VB max is a maximum permissible voltage by the continuous charging terminal and VB min is a minimum permissible voltage by the continuous charging terminal.

### Claim 7

A DC/DC voltage converter, configured to adapt the voltage between an electrical unit connected as input, in particular a continuous charging terminal, and an electrical unit as output, in particular an electrical energy storage unit, comprising:
at least two interleaved cells configured to operate in phase shift, with each cell having respective switches;
a control unit configured to control by pulse width modulation said switches with a duty cycle to adapt the voltage between the electrical unit as input and the electrical unit as output, with a duty cycle having a given value αv that is substantially constant over several interleaving cycles,
wherein the control unit comprises a comparator configured to compare the voltage at a connection point with the voltage of the electrical unit as output divided by the value αv, in such a way as to lock the duty cycle of the converter to the given value αv.