Method for collection and communication of measured data within a fuel cell stack

A system for communicating measurement data from fuel cells in a fuel cell stack, said system comprising:

• a plurality of fuel cells;
• a plurality of stack plates, including one stack plate between each fuel cell and on each end of the stack;
• a plurality of embedded smart plates, each embedded smart plate being mechanically and electrically coupled to at least one of the plurality of stack plates in the fuel cell stack, and each embedded smart plate including an embedded smart plate printed circuit board and optical transceivers on a top side and a bottom side of the smart plates;
• at least one aggregator device, said at least one aggregator device including at least one optical transceiver for initiating communication with the embedded smart plate adjacent to the at least one aggregator device;
• and
• a controller that is configured to control the aggregator device, wherein the controller requests that the aggregator device communicate with the embedded smart plate adjacent to the at least one aggregator device to initiate a series of communications between the embedded smart plates in the stack to determine the location and measurement data collected by each of the smart plates in the stack.

A system for communicating measurement data from fuel cells in a fuel cell stack, said system comprising:

• a plurality of fuel cells;
• a plurality of stack plates, including one stack plate between each fuel cell and on each end of the fuel cell stack;
• a plurality of embedded smart plates, each embedded smart plate being mechanically and electrically coupled to a plurality of stack plates in the fuel cell stack by at least one connector, each embedded smart plate including optical transceivers on a top side and a bottom side of each of the embedded smart plates;
• and
• at least one aggregator device, said at least one aggregator device including at least one optical transceiver for initiating communication with the embedded smart plate, thereby initiating a series of communications between the embedded smart plates and the at least one aggregator device to determine the location and measurement data collected by each of the embedded smart plates in the stack.