Power-Supply Unit

• US 20070229022A1
• Filed: 12/08/2004
• Published: 10/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Inventors: Hanafusa, Kiyoshi, Ishida, Hiroichi
• Application Number:
  US11/576,603
• Publication Number:
  US 20070229022A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 320/101
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/42 Methods or arrangements for servicing or maintenance of secondary cells or secondary half-cells H01M10/60 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 16/006 of fuel cells with rechargeable batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/34 Parallel operation in networks using both storage and other dc sources, e.g. providing buffering H02J7/14 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 Energy storage using batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/50 Fuel cells

Abstract

A power-supply unit includes a chargeable secondary battery 1 connected to a load circuit; a fuel cell 4 connected to the secondary battery 1 through a PchFET 5; and a switch-controlling circuit 6 on/off controlling the PchFET 5 according to how large load current is applied to the load circuit and whether the secondary battery 1 is in a charged state or in a discharged state; thus finely controlling power source supply to the load circuit from the secondary battery 1 and the fuel cell 4. The description is given of the case where positive voltage power source is used with respect to the ground. Even in case of negative voltage, a circuit can be configured on the same principle as the positive voltage.

Claims

1. A power-supply unit comprising:

a chargeable accumulating means connected to a load circuit;

a fuel cell connected to the accumulating means through a switching circuit; and

a switch-controlling circuit on/off controlling the switching circuit according to how large load current is applied to the load circuit and whether the accumulating means is in a charged state or in a discharged state.

2. The power-supply unit according to claim 1, wherein the switch-controlling circuit comprises an accumulating-means side voltage-detecting circuit detecting voltage of the accumulating means side rather than the switching circuit, and

the switch-controlling circuit on/off controls the switching circuit according to the voltage detected by the accumulating-means side voltage-detecting circuit.

3. The power-supply unit according to claim 1, wherein the switch-controlling circuit comprises:

the accumulating-means side voltage-detecting circuit detecting voltage of the accumulating means side rather than the switching circuit; and

a fuel-cell side voltage-detecting circuit detecting voltage of the fuel cell side rather than the switching circuit; and

the switch-controlling circuit on/off controls the switching circuit according to the voltages detected by the accumulating-means side voltage-detecting circuit and the fuel-cell side voltage-detecting circuit.

4. The power-supply unit according to claim 1, further comprising a load-current detecting circuit detecting how large load current is applied to the load circuit and a charging-voltage detecting circuit detecting charging voltage of the accumulating means,

wherein the switch-controlling circuit on/off controls the switching circuit according to how large load current is applied to the load circuit detected by the load-current detecting circuit and charging voltage of the accumulating means detected by the charging-voltage detecting circuit.

5. The power-supply unit according to claim 1, wherein the switch-controlling circuit classifies the load current into the case where the load current to the load circuit is extremely large, the case where the load current is large, and the case where the load current is small, and the switch-controlling circuit ON controls the switching circuit when the load current to the load circuit is extremely large.

6. The power-supply unit according to claim 1, wherein the switch-controlling circuit classifies the load current into the case where the load current to the load circuit is extremely large, the case where the load current is large, and the case where the load current is small;

the switch-controlling circuit OFF control ling the switching circuit when the load current to the load circuit is large and the accumulating means is in a fully charged stage and ON controlling the switching circuit when the load current to the load circuit is large and the accumulating means is in a discharged stage.

7. The power-supply unit according to claim 1, wherein the switch-controlling circuit classifies the load current into the case where the load current to the load circuit is extremely large, the case where the load current is large, and the case where the load current is small;

the switch-controlling circuit OFF controlling the switching circuit when the load current to the load circuit is small and the accumulating means is in a fully charged stage; and

ON controlling the switching circuit when the load current to the load circuit is small and further, the accumulating means is in a discharged stage.

8. The power-supply unit according to claim 1, wherein the fuel cell is connected to the accumulating means through a first backflow-preventing circuit preventing a backflow of current from the accumulating means or the load circuit to the fuel cell.

9. The power-supply unit according to claim 8, wherein the first backflow-preventing circuit is a diode.

10. The power-supply unit according to claim 1, further comprising a solar cell connected to the accumulating means.

11. The power-supply unit according to claim 10, wherein the solar cell charges power in the accumulating means generated by the solar cell when the accumulating means is in a discharged state.

12. The power-supply unit according to claim 10, wherein the solar cell is connected to the accumulating means through a second backflow-preventing circuit preventing a backflow of current from the accumulating means or the load circuit to the solar cell.

13. The power-supply unit according to claim 12, wherein the second backflow-preventing circuit is a diode.

14. The power-supply unit according to claim 1, further comprising a booster circuit boosting the voltage generated by the fuel cell, between the fuel cell and the switching circuit.

15. The power-supply unit according to claim 1, wherein the accumulating means is a secondary battery.

16. The power-supply unit according to claim 1, wherein the accumulating means is a capacitor.

17. The power-supply unit according to claim 1 wherein the accumulating means is a super-capacitor.