US 2006/0132099 A1Published application

Battery charger

OwnerTakao Aradachi, Nobuhiro Takano +1inventors

InventorsTakao Aradachi, Nobuhiro Takano, Kazuhiko Funabashi

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Abstract

A battery charger detects a battery voltage, a battery temperature, and computes a change in the battery voltage between two timings at which the battery voltages are detected and also a change in the battery temperature between two timings at which the battery temperatures are detected. A charge current is determined based on the battery voltage gradient information, the battery temperature gradient information, and at least one of the battery voltage information and the battery temperature information. Also, a full charge discrimination value is also determined based on at least three parameters mentioned above. The battery is determined to be a full charge condition when the computed battery temperature change has exceeded a sum of the minimum battery temperature gradient value and the full charge discrimination value.

Claims19

Dependent claims

A battery charger comprising:

a battery voltage detecting section that detects a battery voltage and produces battery voltage information about the detected battery voltage;
a battery voltage gradient computing section that computes a change in the battery voltage between two timings at which the battery voltages are detected, the battery voltage computing section producing battery voltage gradient information about the computed change in the battery voltage;
a battery temperature detecting section that detects a battery temperature and produces battery temperature information about the detected battery temperature;
a battery temperature gradient computing section that computes a change in the battery temperature between two timings at which the battery temperatures are detected, the battery temperature gradient computing section producing battery temperature gradient information about the computed change in the battery temperature;
and
a control section that controls a charge current supplied to a battery based on the battery voltage gradient information, the battery temperature gradient information, and at least one of the battery voltage information and the battery temperature information.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.