BATTERY INFORMATION ACQUIRING APPARATUS

• US 20100073003A1
• Filed: 03/18/2009
• Published: 03/25/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Yamada, Akiko, Itakura, Tetsuro, Shibuya, Nobuo, Tatebayashi, Yoshinao, Umeda, Toshiyuki, Kurose, Daisuke, SAKURAI, Hiroki
• Granted Patent: US 8,049,509 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 324/426
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/3835 involving only voltage measurements
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/396 Acquisition or processing of data for testing or for monitoring individual cells or groups of cells within a battery
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/482 for several batteries or cells simultaneously or sequentially
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 5/00 Circuit arrangements for transfer of electric power between ac networks and dc networks H02J3/36 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/80 involving the exchange of data, concerning supply or distribution of electric power, between transmitting devices and receiving devices
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0013 acting upon several batteries simultaneously or sequentially H02J7/1423 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0047 with monitoring or indicating devices or circuits
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 Energy storage using batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries

Abstract

A battery information acquiring apparatus includes a voltage acquiring unit which acquires an inter-terminal voltage of the battery cell; a battery information acquiring circuit which acquires battery information of the battery cell with the acquired voltage being supplied as a first power supply voltage and; a radio circuit which transmits a signal of the battery information to the management unit via the antenna with the acquired voltage being supplied as a second power supply voltage and; a rectification circuit which receives a radio signal from the management unit via the antenna, rectify the received radio signal and generate a DC voltage; and a control circuit which controls supply of the first and second power supply voltages to the battery information acquiring circuit and the radio circuit wherein the control circuit operates with the generated DC voltage being supplied as a third power supply voltage.

Claims

1. A battery information acquiring apparatus that acquires battery information of a battery cell in a battery pack including a plurality of the battery cells connected in series or in parallel and transmits the battery information to a management unit that manages a state of the battery pack via an antenna, comprising:

a voltage acquiring unit configured to acquire an inter-terminal voltage of the battery cell;

a battery information acquiring circuit configured to acquire battery information of the battery cell, the battery information acquiring circuit being supplied with the inter-terminal voltage acquired by the voltage acquiring unit as a first power supply voltage;

a radio circuit configured to transmit a signal of the battery information to the management unit via the antenna, the radio circuit being supplied with the inter-terminal voltage acquired by the voltage acquiring unit as a second power supply voltage;

a rectification circuit configured to receive a radio signal from the management unit via the antenna and rectify the received radio signal to generate a DC voltage; and

a control circuit configured to control supply of the first and second power supply voltages to the battery information acquiring circuit and the radio circuit, the control circuit being supplied with the DC voltage generated by the rectification circuit as a third power supply voltage,

wherein the control circuit includes;

a first command receiver configured to receive a first command signal indicating whether or not to supply the first power supply voltage to the battery information acquiring circuit, from the management unit via the antenna;

a second command receiver configured to receive a second command signal indicating whether or not to supply the second power supply voltage to the radio circuit, from the management unit via the antenna;

a first controller configured to control supply of the first power supply voltage to the battery information acquiring circuit according to the first command signal; and

a second controller configured to control supply of the second power supply voltage to the radio circuit according to the second command signal.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a power supply circuit configured to DC-DC convert the inter-terminal voltage of the battery cell,

wherein the voltage resulting from DC-DC converting the inter-terminal voltage of the battery cell is supplied to the battery information acquiring circuit and the radio circuit as the first and second power supply voltages from the power supply circuit.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the battery information acquiring unit acquires at least one of the inter-terminal voltage of the battery cell and a temperature of the battery cell as the battery information.

4. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the battery information acquiring unit comprises a voltage input unit configured to input the inter-terminal voltage of the battery cell, a temperature sensor configured to detect the temperature of the battery cell and an A/D processor, and

the A/D processor acquires a first voltage which is the inter-terminal voltage of the battery cell via the input unit, acquires a second voltage representing the temperature of the battery cell via the temperature sensor, converts the first and second voltages to digital signals respectively and transmits the digital signals to the radio circuit.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the battery information acquiring unit acquires respective inter-terminal voltages of M (M is an integer equal to 2 or greater) serially connected battery cells and a temperature of at least one of the M battery cells as the battery information, and

a voltage between both ends of the M serially connected battery cells is supplied as the first power supply voltage and the second power supply voltage to the battery information acquiring unit and the radio circuit.

6. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the battery information acquiring unit comprises a plurality of voltage input units configured to input respective inter-terminal voltages of the M battery cells, a selector configured to select one of the voltage input units, a temperature sensor configured to detect a temperature of at least one of the battery cells and an A/D processor, and

the A/D processor acquires a first voltage which is the inter-terminal voltage of the battery cell via the input unit selected by the selector, acquires a second voltage representing a temperature of the battery cell via the temperature sensor, converts the first and second voltages to digital signals respectively and transmits the digital signals to the radio circuit.

7. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the A/D processor comprises:

a plurality of serially connected resistor units configured to divide the first or second voltage;

a comparison unit configured to compare a voltage at one end of each of the resistor units with a reference voltage and generate a comparison signal representing a magnitude relationship between the reference voltage and the voltage at the one end of each of the resistor units, respectively; and

a voltage data generator configured to generate voltage data representing the first or the second voltage based on each generated comparison signal and send out the voltage data generated to the radio circuit.

8. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the A/D processor comprises:

a voltage dividing unit configured to divide the first or second voltage by a plurality of capacitors connected in parallel; and

an A/D converter configured to A/D-convert a voltage applied to one of the capacitors and send out the A/D-converted voltage to the radio circuit.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the radio circuit has unique ID, and

the radio circuit transmits a signal including both of the ID and the battery information to the management unit.

10. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a voltage comparison circuit configured to compare the inter-terminal voltage of the battery cell with a threshold voltage,

wherein when the inter-terminal voltage of the battery cell falls below the threshold voltage, the voltage comparison circuit sends a first defect signal to the radio circuit, and

the radio circuit transmits the first defect signal to the management unit via the antenna.

11. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a short-circuit detection circuit configured to detect a short-circuit of the inter-terminal of the battery cell,

wherein the short-circuit detection circuit sends a second defect signal to the radio circuit upon detecting the short-circuit of the inter-terminal of the battery cell, and

the radio circuit transmits the second defect signal to the management unit via the antenna.

12. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a wire breakage detection circuit configured to detect breakage of connection wire between the battery cell and the battery information acquiring circuit,

wherein the wire breakage detection circuit sends a third defect signal to the radio circuit upon detecting breakage of the connection wire, and

the radio circuit transmits the third defect signal to the management unit via the antenna.

13. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the radio circuit comprises a second voltage acquiring unit configured to acquire the generated DC voltage from the rectification circuit as a fourth power supply voltage, and

the radio circuit operates, when the supply of the second voltage from the voltage acquiring unit is stopped, using the fourth power supply voltage.