Thermal Sensor Device With Average Temperature And Hot Spot Feedback
AssigneeBoston-Power, Inc.
InventorsChad Souza, Curtis Martin
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Abstract
A battery system employs a plurality of PTC devices and an additional temperature sensor to provide safety and optimization features in a multi-cell battery system. The system provides both temperature fault detection and information that may be used for battery system performance optimization. A single negative temperature coefficient (NTC) thermistor and multiple PTC thermal protection devices are integrated into a battery block, and can be implemented as a single sensor package that is in thermal contact with each of the battery cells in the battery block.
Claims17
A system for monitoring a multi-cell battery, the system comprising:
- a plurality of positive-temperature coefficient (PTC) devices, each PTC device configured to detect relative temperature at a respective one of a plurality of cells of a multi-cell battery;
- a thermal sensor configured to measure an average temperature among the plurality of cells;
- and
- a control circuit configured to selectively enable and disable a cell of the plurality of cells based on outputs of the plurality of PTC devices and thermal sensor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.