Temperature sensor thermal contact testing method and circuit

Abstract

The present invention relates to a testing method for the thermal contact between a temperature sensor (50) and a battery cell (10) of a battery module (30), wherein the method comprises the steps of measuring a temperature T1 of the temperature sensor (50) at a time point t1, heating the temperature sensor (50) for a defined time (t2−t1), measuring a temperature T2 of the temperature sensor (50) at a time point t2 and/or a temperature T3 of the temperature sensor (50) at a time point t3, and determining the thermal contact between the temperature sensor (50) and the battery cell (10) based on at least one of the temperature differences ΔT2,1=(T2−T1), ΔT3,1=(T3−T1) and/or ΔT3,2=(T3−T2). The invention further relates to a testing circuit (60) for a temperature sensor (50) of a battery module (30), comprising a thermistor (61) with a first node (67) connected to a first supply voltage (65) and a second node (68) connected to ground (69), a switch (63) interconnected between the first node (67) of the thermistor (61) and a second supply voltage (66), and an analog-to-digital converter (64) connected in parallel to the thermistor (61). The invention further relates to a cell supervision circuit (40) for a battery module (30), comprising a circuit carrier (45), a testing circuit (60) according to any one of the claims 1 to 10, and a temperature sensor (50) surface mounted to the circuit carrier (45) and comprising a measuring head (51) with a thermistor (61) configured to be brought into thermal contact with a battery cell (10) of the battery module (30).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.