Battery charger

• US 20090218984A1
• Filed: 02/28/2008
• Published: 09/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Imergy Power Systems, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Deeya Energy Incorporated
• Inventors: Parakulam, Gopalakrishnan R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,587,150 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 320/107
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 1/102 being switching converters H02J1/108, H02J1/12 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 1/12 Parallel operation of dc generators with converters, e.g. with mercury-arc rectifier
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00 Circuit arrangements for charging or depolarising batteries or for supplying loads from batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 9/06 with automatic change-over , e.g. UPS systems

Abstract

A battery charging system according to some embodiments includes a plurality of power modules coupled to a backplane, each of the plurality of power modules providing an electrical indication of type of power module to the backplane, the power modules of each type providing an electrical function associated with charging a battery consistent with the type of power module; and a controller that determines the number of power modules of a particular type and supplies control signals that allocate to each of the power modules of the particular type a portion of the electrical function.

Claims

1. A battery charging system, comprising:

a plurality of power modules coupled to a backplane, each of the plurality of power modules providing an electrical indication of type of power module to the backplane, the power modules of each type providing an electrical function associated with charging a battery consistent with the type of power module; and

a controller that determines the number of power modules of a particular type and supplies control signals that allocate to each of the power modules of the particular type a portion of the electrical function.

2. The charging system of claim 1, wherein the particular type is rectifier modules.

3. The charging system of claim 2, wherein the electrical function is providing power to an internal bus.

4. The charging system of claim 1, wherein the particular type is charging modules.

5. The charging system of claim 4, wherein the electrical function is providing charging current.

6. The charging system of claim 5, wherein the controller monitors the charging current, and controls the charging modules so that each of the number of charging modules provides an equal portion of a required charging current.

7. The charging system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of power modules includes one or more types of power modules chosen from a set of types consisting of rectifier modules, charging modules, buck-boost modules, sensor modules, and controller modules.

8. The charging system of claim 7, wherein the controller determines the number of each type of power module and provides control signals to each of the power modules.

9. The charging system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of power modules includes a plurality of charger/rectifier modules, each of the plurality of charger/rectifier modules being configured as either a charging module or a rectifying module.

10. The charging system of claim 9, wherein a charging module configured charger/rectifier module includes a bus bar blade that couples the charger/rectifier module to a charging bus of the backplane.

11. The charging system of claim 10, wherein a monitoring circuit is enabled by the bus bar blade.

12. The charging system of claim 9, wherein the rectifying module includes a bus bar blade that couples the charger/rectifier module with a B bus of the backplane.

13. The charging system of claim 12, wherein the bus bar blade engages a monitoring circuit.

14. The charging system of claim 13, wherein the monitoring circuit determines configuration of the charger/rectifier module and generates the electrical indication appropriate for that configuration.

15. The charging system of claim 1, wherein the controller disregards power modules of the particular type in which a fault has been detected by determining the number of power modules of the particular type to be the number of active power modules of the particular type.

16. A method of charging a battery, comprising:

determining a number of charging modules that are coupled to a backplane;

determining a charging current;

adjusting a current output of each of the number of charging modules to supply the charging current; and

applying the charging current to a battery.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein determining the number of charging modules includes

detecting an electrical indication from each charging module, and

determining the number from cumulative effects of the electrical indication from each charging module.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the electrical indication is a resistance and determining the number includes

coupling the resistance from each of the charging modules in parallel between a voltage and a current source,

determining a signal voltage across the parallel resistances;

and

determining the number from the signal voltage.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein determining the number of charging modules includes determining the number of charging modules that do not have a fault condition.

20. The method of claim 16, further including

determining a number of power modules of each type of power module coupled to the backplane;

and

controlling the power modules of each type of power modules coupled to the backplane according to its type and the number of power modules of like type.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the type of power module includes rectifier modules, charging modules, buck-boost modules, and control modules.

22. The method of claim 16, further including configuring a charger/rectifier module as a charger module or a rectifier module by applying a bus bar blade to a charging bus terminal or a B bus terminal of the charger/rectifier module.

23. The method of claim 22, further including activating a monitor circuit when the bus bar blade is applied to the B bus terminal.

24. The method of claim 22, further including activating a monitor circuit when the bus bar blade is applied to the charging bus terminal.