Electric power supply system
AssigneeLenovo Innovations Limited (Hong Kong)
InventorToshiyuki Oga
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In an electric power supply system, a plurality of batteries (405, 406) are connected in series by a switch group (402 to 404, 407 to 409), and a higher voltage and a lower voltage are output through a terminal and a VOL terminal, respectively, and are respectively converted in the voltage thereof by two step-down DC-DC inverters (105, 106). During a discharge operation upon a serial connection, remaining content of the batteries is measured in a period other than the period of discharge from the batteries (105, 106), and the connection mode of the serial connection is controlled based on the remaining content, to control the discharge of the respective batteries up to the discharge capacity.
Claims16
An electric power supply system comprising:
- a battery section having a plurality of rechargeable batteries having a difference in discharge capacities, charge capacities, or maximum charge capacities for outputting a source voltage obtained by connecting said plurality of rechargeable batteries,
- wherein said battery section comprises:
- a switch group that switches based on a control signal to select one or some of said plurality of rechargeable batteries to output said source voltage;
- and
- a remaining-content measurement section that measures remaining contents of said plurality of rechargeable batteries by measuring voltages of said plurality of rechargeable batteries during a discharge operation and determining remaining contents of said plurality of rechargeable batteries based on said voltages, and outputs said control signal based on a result of comparing said remaining contents, where said switch group selects one of said plurality of rechargeable batteries having the largest remaining content that outputs said source voltage based on a result of measurement by said remaining-content measurement section.
An electric power supply system comprising:
- a battery section having a plurality of rechargeable batteries having a difference in discharge capacities, charge capacities, or maximum charge capacities for outputting a source voltage obtained by connecting said plurality of rechargeable batteries;
- and
- a control unit that detects or anticipates off-timing in which said source voltage is cut off, and outputs a control signal indicating said off-timing in response to detecting or anticipating the off-timing,
- wherein said battery section comprises:
- a switch group for switching that switches based on said control signal to select one or some of said plurality of rechargeable batteries to output said source voltage.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.