Back to results
US 10,897,143 B2Granted
Passive cell-balancing with dynamic charge control
AssigneeTexas Instruments Incorporated
InventorsJing Zou, Qiong M. Li, Richard Kane Stair
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A device for charging battery cells has conductive lines to be coupled to the battery cells, a charge control circuit coupled to the conductive lines to charge the battery cells, and to determine voltages of the battery cells, and switches to balance the voltages among the battery cells. In operation, the charge control circuit charges the battery cells while determining the voltages of the battery cells, and suspends from charging the battery cells before determining the voltages of the battery cells in a second stage.
Claims20
An integrated circuit device comprising:
- conductive lines adapted to be coupled to battery cells;
- a charge control circuit coupled to the conductive lines the charge control circuit including period timer circuitry, charging circuitry, measuring circuitry, processor circuitry, and memory circuitry, all coupled to the conductive lines, the charge control circuitry:
- in a first stage, measuring voltage on the battery cells while applying a charging current to the battery cells;
- determining by the measuring that one of the battery cells has a voltage equal to or greater than a first threshold voltage, and that a difference in voltage between a most highly-charged cell and another cell meets a second threshold voltage different than the first threshold voltage;
- after the determining and in a second stage, balancing charging the battery cells by repeatedly removing the charging current from the battery cells during a settling period, measuring voltage on the battery cells after the settling period, and applying the charging current to the battery cells after the measuring;
- and
- exiting the balancing when the measured voltage on the battery cells reach a desired voltage.
4 more elements
A system for charging battery cells, comprising:
- battery connectors adapted to be connected to series connected battery cells;
- a current source;
- conductive lines coupled to the battery connectors;
- a charge control circuit coupled to the conductive lines and coupled to the current source, the charge control circuit including period timer circuitry, charging circuitry, measuring circuitry, processor circuitry, and memory circuitry, all coupled to the conductive lines, the charge control circuitry:
- in a first stage, measuring voltage on the battery cells while applying a charging current to the battery cells;
- determining by the measuring that one of the battery cells has a voltage equal to or greater than a first threshold voltage, and that a difference in voltage between a most highly-charged cell and another cell meets a second threshold voltage different than the first threshold voltage;
- after the determining and in a second stage, balancing charging the battery cells by repeatedly removing the charging current from the battery cells during a settling period, measuring voltage on the battery cells after the settling period, and applying the charging current to the battery cells after the measuring;
- and
- exiting the balancing when the measured voltage on the battery cells reach a desired voltage.
6 more elements
A process of charging series connected battery cells comprising:
- in a first stage, measuring voltage on the battery cells while applying a charging current to the battery cells;
- determining by the measuring that one of the battery cells has a voltage equal to or greater than a first threshold voltage, and that a difference in voltage between a most highly-charged cell and another cell meets a second threshold voltage different than the first threshold voltage;
- after the determining and in a second stage, balancing charging the battery cells by repeatedly removing the charging current from the battery cells during a settling period, measuring voltage on the battery cells after the settling period, and applying the charging current to the battery cells after the measuring;
- and
- exiting the balancing when the measured voltage on the battery cells reach a desired voltage.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.