Method for reducing in-rush currents in battery charging applications
AssigneeHella GmbH & Co. KGaA
InventorDebabrato Kumar Mondal
Life of this patent
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Abstract
(57) Abstract: A system and a method for limiting in-rush currents to a battery module (14) is provided. The system and the method include operating a power MOSFET (12) with a pulse-width-modulated, PWM gate voltage. The frequency and the duty cycle of the PWM gate voltage are iteratively selected such that the current through the battery module (12) does not exceed a current limit value (18), the battery module (14) being series connected with the MOSFET load path. In one embodiment, the frequency and the duty cycle of the PWM gate voltage are alternatively varied to gradually increase the current in the load path until a current limit value (18) is reached.
Claims15
A method comprising:
- providing a battery module including a first battery cell that is series connected with a load path of a power MOSFET;
- activating the power MOSFET with a PWM gate voltage, the PWM gate voltage having a variable frequency and a variable duty cycle;
- measuring the current in the load path of the power MOSFET during activation of the power MOSFET;
- and
- varying the frequency and the duty cycle of the PWM gate voltage to iteratively increase the current in the load path of the power MOSFET while maintaining the current in the load path of the power MOSFET below a current limit value.
A system comprising:
- a battery module including a first battery cell;
- a power MOSFET, the first battery cell being series connected with a load path of the power MOSFET;
- and
- a controller adapted to provide a PWM gate voltage to the power MOSFET, wherein the PWM gate voltage includes a variable frequency and a variable duty cycle, the controller including machine readable instructions that, when executed, cause the controller to (i) measure a current in the load path of the power MOSFET during activation of the power MOSFET and (ii) vary the frequency and the duty cycle of the PWM gate voltage to iteratively increase the current in the load path of the power MOSFET while maintaining the current in the load path of the power MOSFET below a current limit value.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.