SYSTEMS, APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR BATTERY CHARGE MANAGEMENT

• US 20100052614A1
• Filed: 11/26/2008
• Published: 03/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alternative Current Corporation
• Original Assignee: Modalis Engineering, Inc.
• Inventors: Mariels, Nathan
• Granted Patent: US 8,093,862 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 320/116
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0016 using shunting, discharge or bypass circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/1423 with multiple batteries

Abstract

Systems, apparatus, and methods for automobile battery management is provided. In one embodiment, an apparatus for providing balanced and individualized charging to a battery pack is provided. The apparatus uses microcontrollers to determine a charge level of the batteries, and correspondingly controls a power balancer to apply a charge current to the battery in relation to the charge level, and dissipates the remaining charge current as heat energy. In one embodiment, a system controller controls a balanced charging operation of the battery system, provides an interface for a user to monitor cell-level parameters, and protects the battery cells from undercharging or overcharging during the charging or discharging operations.

Claims

1. An apparatus for providing balanced and individualized charging to each battery cell in a plurality of battery cells, the apparatus comprising:

a first power balancer configured to regulate a charge current applied to a first battery cell of the plurality of battery cells; and

a microcontroller configured to monitor a charge level of the first battery cell, wherein the microcontroller controls the first power balancer such that an effective amount of the charge current applied to the first battery cell is proportional to the charge level of the first battery cell, and wherein an unused portion of the charge current is dissipated as heat energy through a heat sink associated with the first power balancer.

2. An apparatus for providing balanced and individualized charging to each battery cell in a plurality of battery cells as recited in claim 1, wherein the unused portion of the charge current is a difference between the charge current and the effective amount of the charge current.

3. An apparatus for providing balanced and individualized charging to each battery cell in a plurality of battery cells as recited in claim 1, wherein the first power balancer is a transistor device.

4. An apparatus for providing balanced and individualized charging to each battery cell in a plurality of battery cells as recited in claim 3, wherein the transistor device includes at least one of a bipolar junction transistor, a power transistor, or an epitaxial transistor, or a metal-oxide semiconductor transistor.

5. An apparatus for providing balanced and individualized charging to each battery cell in a plurality of battery cells as recited in claim 1, wherein the first battery cell is at least one of:

a Lithium-ion battery cell, a Nickel-Zinc battery cell, a Nickel Metal Hydride cell or a Lead-acid cell.

6. An apparatus for providing balanced and individualized charging to each battery cell in a plurality of battery cells as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of battery cells are connected in series.

7. An apparatus for providing balanced and individualized charging to each battery cell in a plurality of battery cells as recited in claim 1, wherein the microcontroller is a PID controller.

8. An apparatus for providing balanced and individualized charging to each battery cell in a plurality of battery cells as recited in claim 7, wherein the microcontroller monitors the charge level and controls the first power balancer using PID algorithms.

9. An apparatus for providing balanced and individualized charging to each battery cell in a plurality of battery cells as recited in claim 1, wherein the first power balancer receives the charge current and in response generates a balancing current and an effective charging current, wherein the effective charging current is applied to the first battery cell and the balancing current is dissipated as heat energy through the heat sink associated with the first power balancer.

10. An apparatus for providing balanced and individualized charging to each battery cell in a plurality of battery cells as recited in claim 9, wherein the microcontroller controls the first power balancer such that the effective charging current is proportional to the charge level of the first battery cell, and wherein the balancing current is the unused portion of the charging current that is subsequently dissipated as heat energy.

11. An apparatus for providing balanced and individualized charging to each battery cell in a plurality of battery cells as recited in claim 10, wherein a battery jumper is used to dissipated the heat energy generated by the first power balancer.

12. An apparatus for providing balanced and individualized charging to each battery cell in a plurality of battery cells as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

a second power balancer to regulate a charge current applied to a second battery cell of the plurality of battery cells, wherein the second battery cell is connected in series to the first battery cell, and wherein the microcontroller individually monitors a charge level of the second battery cell and controls the second power balancer such that an effective amount of charging current applied to the second battery cell is proportional to the charge level of the second battery cell.

13. An apparatus for providing balanced and individualized charging to each battery cell in a plurality of battery cells as recited in claim 12, wherein the microcontroller controls the first power balancer and the second power balancer such that a final charge level of the first battery cell is balanced against a final charge level of the second battery cell.

14. An apparatus for providing balanced and individualized charging to each battery cell in a plurality of battery cells as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

an optical isolator for the first power balancer, wherein the optical isolator prevents a failure of the first power balancer to propagate to the microcontroller.

15. An apparatus for providing balanced and individualized charging to each battery cell in a plurality of battery cells as recited in claim 1, the apparatus further comprising:

a temperature sensor, wherein the temperature sensor senses an overall temperature of the plurality of battery cells.

16. An apparatus for providing balanced and individualized charging to each battery cell in a plurality of battery cells as recited in claim 1, the apparatus further comprising:

a status indicator, wherein the microcontroller controls a status information that is outputted by the status indicator.

17. An apparatus for providing balanced and individualized charging to each battery cell in a plurality of battery cells as recited in claim 1, wherein the microcontroller logs cell parameter values corresponding to the first battery cell.

18. An apparatus for providing balanced and individualized charging to each battery cell in a plurality of battery cells as recited in claim 17, wherein the cell parameter values include at least one of:

a voltage level of each of the plurality of battery cells;

a current level of each of the plurality of battery cells;

a temperature level of each of the plurality of battery cells;

or

a charge rate of each of the plurality of battery cells.

19. An apparatus for providing balanced and individualized charging to each battery cell in a plurality of battery cells, the apparatus comprising:

a first power transistors configured to regulate a charge current applied to a first battery cell of the plurality of battery cells; and

a PID controller configured to monitor a current charge level of the first battery cell, wherein, in operation the PID controller controls the first power transistor such that;

a specific portion of the charge current is applied to the first battery cell, wherein the specific portion is determined in response to the current charge level of the first battery cell;

an unused portion of the charge current that is not applied to the first battery cell appears as a balancing current in the first power transistor; and

the balancing current in the first power transistor is dissipated as heat energy through a heat sink associated with the first power transistor

28. A battery management system for use in a motor vehicle as recited in claim 19, wherein the balancing controller communicates with the charge balancer to monitor characteristic information of each of the plurality of battery cells, wherein the characteristic information includes at least one of voltage, current, or temperature of each of the plurality of battery cells.

29. A battery management system for use in a motor vehicle as recited in claim 28, wherein the balancing controller uses a predictive State of Charge (SoC) to determine a charge rate of each of the plurality of battery cells.

30. A battery management system for use in a motor vehicle as recited in claim 29, wherein the system controller includes an enabling controller to control transfer of the battery power to the motor controller, wherein the enabling controller turns off the battery power to the motor controller if any of the plurality of battery cells exceeds an allowable parameter level.

31. A battery management system for use in a motor vehicle as recited in claim 30, wherein the allowable parameter level includes at least one of:

the charge level of each of the battery cells,

an under voltage value of each of the battery cells, or

an over temperature value of each of the battery cells.

20. A battery management system for use in a motor vehicle, the battery management system comprising:

a charge balancer configured to individually control a charging operation of each of a plurality of battery cells, wherein the charge balancer includes a microcontroller to monitor a charge level of each of the plurality of battery cells and to control the charging operation of a particular battery cell in response to the charge level indicated by the particular battery cell; and

a system controller configured to govern operations of the battery management system and to direct a battery power from the plurality of battery cells to a motor controller of the motor vehicle, wherein the system controller includes a balancing controller to facilitate charging operations of the charge balancer.

21. A battery management system for use in a motor vehicle as recited in claim 20, wherein the microcontroller is a PID controller.

22. A battery management system for use in a motor vehicle as recited in claim 21, wherein the microcontroller controls a plurality of power balancers to apply an effective charging current to each of the plurality of battery cells, wherein each of the plurality of power balancers receive a total charge current and apply the effective charging current to each of the plurality of battery cells in response to the charge level of each of the plurality of battery cells.

23. A battery management system for use in a motor vehicle as recited in claim 22, wherein each of the plurality of power balancers regulate a balancing current in response to a portion of the total charge current that is not used as the effective charging current for each of the plurality of battery cells, and wherein each of the plurality of power balancers dissipate the balancing current as heat energy.

24. A battery management system for use in a motor vehicle as recited in claim 23, wherein the each of the plurality of power balancers is a power transistor.

25. A battery management system for use in a motor vehicle as recited in claim 20, further comprising:

a current charger configured to supply a charging current to charge each of the plurality of battery cells.

26. A battery management system for use in a motor vehicle as recited in claim 25, wherein the system controller includes a current charger controller, wherein the current charger controller turns off the current charger when one or more of the plurality of battery cells exceeds an allowable parameter level.

27. A battery management system for use in a motor vehicle as recited in claim 26, wherein the allowable parameter level includes at least one of:

the charge level of each of the battery cells;

an over voltage value of each of the battery cells;

or

an over temperature value of each of the battery cells.

32. A battery management system for use in a motor vehicle as recited in claim 20, wherein the system controller includes a throttle controller configured to reduce a throttle of the motor controller when the battery power from the plurality of battery cells is lower than a predetermined level.

33. A battery management system for use in a motor vehicle as recited in claim 20, wherein the system controller includes a data logger, wherein the data logger maintains logs of at least one of:

a voltage level of each of the plurality of battery cells;

a current level of each of the plurality of battery cells;

a temperature level of each of the plurality of battery cells;

or

a charge rate of each of the plurality of battery cells;

34. A battery management system for use in a motor vehicle as recited in claim 20, wherein the system controller includes a State of Charge display to indicate the charge level of each of the plurality of battery cells, wherein the State of Charge display includes at least one of:

an output to a gas gauge of the motor vehicle;

a battery light indicator;

an LCD display;

a plurality of LED lights;

or

a serial link to an external display device.

35. A battery management system for use in a motor vehicle as recited in claim 20, wherein the system controller includes an interface to a computing device.

36. A battery management system for use in a motor vehicle as recited in claim 35, wherein the computing device is used for at least one of:

review log data from the data logger;

or

configure parameters of the system controller.

37. A battery management system for use in a motor vehicle as recited in claim 35, wherein the interface includes at least one of a serial interface or an Ethernet interface.

38. A battery management system for use in a motor vehicle as recited in claim 26, wherein the current charger controller enables the plurality of power balancers to regulate each of the plurality of battery cells when a maximum needed power difference of each of the plurality of battery cell is within a limit of heat dissipation of each of the plurality of heat sinks associated with each of the plurality of battery cells.

39. A method for providing balanced and individualized charging to each battery cell in a plurality of battery cells, the method comprising:

feeding a total charge current to a first power balancer, wherein the first power balancer regulates an effective charge current applied to a first battery cell of the plurality of battery cells;

controlling the first power balancer using a microcontroller, wherein the microcontroller monitors a current charge level of the first battery cell; and

using the microcontroller to vary a balancing current in the first power balancer such that a difference of the balancing current and the total charge current is applied to as the effective charge current to the first battery cell, wherein the effective charge current is relative to the current charge level of the first battery cell.

40. A method for providing balanced and individualized charging to each battery cell in a plurality of battery cells as recited in claim 39, the method further comprising:

dissipating as heat energy the balancing current of the first power balancer through a heat sink associated with the first power balancer.

41. A method for providing balanced and individualized charging to each battery cell in a plurality of battery cells as recited in claim 39, wherein the microcontroller is a PID controller.

42. A method for providing balanced and individualized charging to each battery cell in a plurality of battery cells as recited in claim 39, the method further comprising:

protecting the microcontroller from a failure of the first power balancer using an optical isolator.

43. A method for providing balanced and individualized charging to each battery cell in a plurality of battery cells as recited in claim 39, the method further comprising:

using the microcontroller to collect and log a plurality of cell parameters.

44. A method for providing balanced and individualized charging to each battery cell in a plurality of battery cells as recited in claim 43, wherein the plurality of cell parameters includes at least one of:

a voltage level of each of the plurality of battery cells;

a current level of each of the plurality of battery cells;

a temperature level of each of the plurality of battery cells;

or

a charge rate of each of the plurality of battery cells.