ACCURACY OF BATTERY MONITOR PARTS

• US 20110004427A1
• Filed: 11/05/2009
• Published: 01/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Analog Devices, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Analog Devices, Inc.
• Inventors: PRICE, Colin Charles, GORBOLD, Jeremy Richard, COLN, Michael C.W.
• Granted Patent: US 8,515,699 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/63
• 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: G01R 35/005 Calibrating; Standards or reference devices, e.g. voltage or resistance standards, "golden" references G01R33/0035, G01R35/002 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/425 Structural combination with electronic components, e.g. electronic circuits integrated to the outside of the casing printed circuits H05K1/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/482 for several batteries or cells simultaneously or sequentially
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 Energy storage using batteries

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide a monitoring system that may include a plurality of monitors. Each may have a plurality of input pairs coupled to respective components of a component stack, wherein adjacent monitors each have an input pair coupled to a common component. Embodiments of the present invention provide an integrated circuit that may include a plurality of detectors to locally measure a first group of channels. The integrated circuit may also include a receiver operable to receive a measurement of at least one channel of the first group of channels, and a controller to calculate a correction factor based on the received measurement and a local measurement of the at least one channel and to correct all first group measurements with the correction factor.

Claims

1. A monitoring system comprising a plurality of monitors, each having a plurality of input pairs coupled to respective components of a component stack, wherein adjacent monitors each have an input pair coupled to a common component.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the components are battery cells and the component stack is a battery stack.

3. The monitoring system of claim 1, wherein a first monitor adjusts its voltage measurement of another common component based on the correction factor and transmits data representing the adjusted voltage measurement to another adjacent monitor.

4. The monitoring system of claim 1, wherein the monitors are mutually connected by a daisy chain communication network.

5. The monitoring system of claim 1, wherein a first monitor is coupled to an external reference voltage source.

6. An integrated circuit, comprising:

a plurality of detectors to locally measure a first group of channels;

a receiver to receive a measurement of at least one channel of the first group of channels;

a controller to calculate a correction factor based on the received measurement and a local measurement of the at least one channel and to correct all first group measurements with the correction factor.

7. The circuit of claim 6, wherein channels are battery cells.

8. The circuit of claim 6, further comprising:

a transmitter operable to transmit a corrected local measurement of a second channel to another integrated circuit.

9. The circuit of claim 7, wherein each detector has a pair of inputs, a cathode terminal input and an anode terminal input.

10. The circuit of claim 6, further comprising:

a multiplexer to multiplex measurement signals from the detectors; and

an analog to digital converter coupled to the multiplexer.

11. The circuit of claim 6, further comprising:

an internal reference voltage.

12. A calibration method for an integrated circuit, comprising:

locally measuring voltages on a plurality of inputs of the integrated circuit,

receiving data representing an external measurement of one of the voltages measured by the integrated circuit,

generating a correction factor from the external measure of the one voltage and the local measurement of the one voltage, and

adjusting the locally measured voltages by the correction factor.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising transmitting data representing an adjusted locally measured voltage to an adjacent integrated circuit.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising transmitting data representing the adjusted locally measured voltages to a system controller.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the received data is received from an adjacent integrated circuit.

16. An integrated circuit, comprising:

a plurality of detectors to measure a first group of channels with a coupled external reference voltage source; and

a transmitter to transmit a measurement of at least one channel of the first group of channels, wherein the transmitted measurement is to be used to calculate a correction factor for an adjacent integrated circuit.

17. The circuit of claim 16, wherein channels are battery cells.

18. The circuit of claim 17, wherein each detector has a pair of inputs, a cathode terminal input and an anode terminal input.

19. The circuit of claim 16, further comprising:

a multiplexer to multiplex measurement signals from the detector; and

an analog to digital converter coupled to the multiplexer.

20. A system controller, comprising:

a receiver to receive measurements of respective components of a component stack, wherein adjacent monitoring devices measure a common component; and

a processor to adjust all received measurements based on common component measurements.

21. The system controller of claim 20, wherein the components are battery cells.

22. The system controller of claim 20, wherein the controller and plurality of monitoring devices are mutually connected by a daisy chain communication network.

23. The system controller of claim 20, wherein one of the plurality of monitoring devices is coupled to an external reference voltage.

24. A method, comprising:

receiving a first set of measurement signals;

receiving a second set of measurement signals, wherein the second set of measurement signals partially overlap with the first set of measurement signals;

calculating a correction factor based on the overlap measurement signals;

adjusting the second set of measurement signals based on the correction factor.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the measurement signals are battery cell measurements.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the first set of measurement signals are based on an external reference voltage.