PTC Sensing Circuit for Lithium Ion Battery Arrays
AssigneeManaflex, LLC
InventorRobert Clinton Lane
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A PTC sensing circuit formed on a substrate offering an easily assembled solution to detect thermal runaway event in a group of battery cells. Various circuit designs are contemplated. Optionally this sensing circuit can work with or be part of the cell interconnect in a battery module. It can also be part of the collector.
Claims13
A battery module comprising:
- a housing;
- a plurality of bricks electrically connected and disposed in the housing;
- a plurality of battery cells electrically connected and disposed in an array to form a brick in said plurality of bricks;
- a cell interconnect coupled to the plurality of battery cells in said brick;
- a sheet of sensing circuit disposed either on a top or on a bottom of the plurality of cells, said sheet of sensing circuit includes:
- a) a metal conductive layer having a pattern and the pattern has a least one gap;
- b) a PTC (positive temperature coefficient) layer disposed across said at least one gap to allow a plurality of electrons to flow via a path in the metal conductive layer and bypassing the at least one gap.
The battery module as recited in claim 6, wherein the dielectric layer is part of said sheet of sensing circuit.
The battery module as recited in claim 6, wherein the PTC layer is comprised of a PTC carbon ink.
A method of spontaneously detecting a thermal runaway event in a battery module, the method comprising:
- providing a battery module having an array of lithium ion battery cells to form a brick, and a plurality of liked bricks are connected to form a module;
- providing a sheet of sensing circuit in close proximity with said plurality of battery cells in said brick, wherein the sheet of sensing circuit has a metal conductive layer and a dielectric layer;
- and
- wherein the dielectric layer prevents the metal conductive layer from directly touching the plurality of battery cells;
- monitoring and measuring a change in a resistance of the metal conductive layer;
- sending an alert when the resistance has increased above a threshold level.
The method as recited in claim 13 further comprising using a reel-to-reel machine to produce and laminate together at least the following layers to form a flexible printed circuit:
- the metal conductive layer, the dielectric layer, and the PTC material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.