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US 6,208,148 B1Granted
Battery charger
AssigneeSGS-Thomson Microelectronics Pte Ltd
InventorTang Kong Yuen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An end-of-charge detection technique for a battery charger is described. The technique involves the detection of a voltage drop at the end of charging and eliminates the effect of noise spikes.
Claims16
A battery charger including:
- a voltage detection circuit for monitoring a voltage of a battery being charged and for providing sequentially a plurality of voltage values for the voltage of the battery being charged measured at a selected interval;
- a comparator connected to compare each voltage value with a preceding voltage value within the sequence to determine a difference between each voltage value and the preceding voltage value;
- a detector outputting an end of charge detection signal when said difference between a voltage value and a last preceding voltage value reflects a decrease of at least a threshold amount or when the voltage value does not exceed the last preceding voltage value.
A method of detecting a voltage drop when charging a battery, the method comprising:
- monitoring a voltage of a battery being charged and providing sequentially a plurality of voltage values for the voltage of the battery being charged measured at a selected interval;
- comparing each voltage value with a preceding voltage value to determine a difference a difference between each voltage value and the preceding voltage value within the sequence;
- and
- producing an end of charge detection signal when said difference between a voltage value and a last preceding voltage value of at least a threshold amount or when the voltage value does not exceed the last preceding voltage value.
1 more element
A method of detecting a battery is fully charged, comprising:
- monitoring a voltage of the battery being charged at a selected interval;
- storing the measured voltages in sequence;
- comparing each voltage in the sequence with a preceding voltage;
- and
- producing an end of charge detection signal when at least n measured voltages in the sequence each exhibit a decrease from a next previous measured voltage within the sequence, where n is at least two.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.