Managing Cycle and Runtime in Batteries for Portable Electronic Devices

• US 20130257382A1
• Filed: 05/09/2012
• Published: 10/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Field, J. Douglas, Athas, William C.
• Application Number:
  US13/467,687
• Publication Number:
  US 20130257382A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 320/134
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/44 Methods for charging or discharging circuits for charging H02J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/48 Accumulators combined with arrangements for measuring, testing or indicating the condition of cells, e.g. the level or density of the electrolyte constructional details of current conducting connections for detecting conditions inside cells or batteries, e.g. details of voltage sensing terminals, H01M50/569
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/486 for measuring temperature
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 2220/30 Batteries in portable systems, e.g. mobile phone, laptop
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0069 Charging or discharging for charge maintenance, battery initiation or rejuvenation
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0071 with a programmable schedule
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/007182 in response to battery voltage
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 Energy storage using batteries

Abstract

The disclosed embodiments provide a system that manages use of a battery in a portable electronic device. The system includes a monitoring mechanism that monitors one or more battery-usage parameters of the battery during use of the battery with the portable electronic device. The battery-usage parameters may include a battery age, a resting time, a swell rate, a temperature, a cell balance, a voltage, a current, usage data about how the battery has been cycled, and/or user input. The system also includes a management apparatus that adjusts a charge-termination voltage or a discharge-termination voltage of the battery based on the battery-usage parameters to manage a cycle life of the battery, the swell rate, and/or a runtime of the battery.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for managing use of a battery in a portable electronic device, comprising:

monitoring one or more battery-usage parameters of the battery during use of the battery with the portable electronic device, wherein the one or more battery-usage parameters comprise at least one of a swell rate, a temperature, a cell balance, a voltage, a current, a rate of change in battery capacity, an amount of time of banks in the battery can maintain a balanced state and user input; and

adjusting a charge-termination voltage of the battery based on the battery-usage parameters to manage at least one of a cycle life of the battery, the swell rate, and a runtime of the battery.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more battery-usage parameters additionally comprise at least one of the following:

a battery age;

a resting time; and

usage data about how the battery has been cycled.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

adjusting a discharge-termination voltage of the battery based on the battery-usage parameters.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the charge-termination voltage and the discharge-termination voltage are adjusted using a set of registers.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the set of registers is further used to record at least one of a cycle number, a cycle limit of the battery, the battery age, and the resting time.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein adjusting the charge-termination voltage of the battery based on the battery-usage parameters involves adjusting the charge-termination voltage based on a functional combination of multiple battery usage parameters.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein adjusting the charge-termination voltage of the battery based on the battery-usage parameters involves:

if a battery-usage parameter from the battery-usage parameters exceeds a pre-specified threshold, reducing the charge-termination voltage.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the charge-termination voltage is reduced to improve at least one of the cycle life and the swell rate.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein adjusting the charge-termination voltage of the battery based on the battery-usage parameters involves:

temporarily increasing the charge-termination voltage based on the user input.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the charge-termination voltage is increased to improve the runtime of the battery.

11. A computer-implemented method for managing use of a battery in a portable electronic device, comprising:

monitoring one or more battery-usage parameters of the battery during use of the battery with the portable electronic device, wherein the one or more battery-usage parameters comprise at least one of a swell rate, a temperature, a cell balance, a voltage, a current, a rate of change in battery capacity, an amount of time of banks in the battery can maintain a balanced state and user input; and

adjusting a discharge-termination voltage of the battery based on the battery-usage parameters to manage at least one of a cycle life of the battery, the swell rate, and a runtime of the battery.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the one or more battery-usage parameters additionally comprise at least one of the following:

a battery age;

a resting time; and

usage data about how the battery has been cycled.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising:

adjusting a charge-termination voltage of the battery based on the battery-usage parameters.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the charge-termination voltage and the discharge-termination voltage are adjusted using a set of registers.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein the set of registers is further used to record at least one of a cycle number, a cycle limit of the battery, the battery age, and the resting time.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein adjusting the discharge-termination voltage of the battery based on the battery-usage parameters involves adjusting the discharge-termination voltage based on a functional combination of multiple battery usage parameters.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein adjusting the discharge-termination voltage of the battery based on the battery-usage parameters involves:

if a battery-usage parameter from the battery-usage parameters exceeds a pre-specified threshold, increasing the discharge-termination voltage.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein adjusting the discharge-termination voltage of the battery based on the battery-usage parameters involves:

temporarily decreasing the discharge-termination voltage based on the user input.

19. A system for managing use of a battery in a portable electronic device, comprising:

a monitoring mechanism configured to monitor one or more battery-usage parameters of the battery during use of the battery with the portable electronic device, wherein the one or more battery-usage parameters comprise at least one of a swell rate, a temperature, a cell balance, a voltage, a current, a rate of change in battery capacity, an amount of time of banks in the battery can maintain a balanced state and user input; and

a management apparatus configured to adjust a charge-termination voltage or a discharge-termination voltage of the battery based on the battery-usage parameters to manage at least one of a cycle life of the battery, the swell rate, and a runtime of the battery.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the one or more battery-usage parameters additionally comprise at least one of the following:

a battery age;

a resting time; and

usage data about how the battery has been cycled.

21. The system of claim 19, further comprising:

a set of control registers configured to store the charge-termination voltage and the discharge-termination voltage.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the control registers are further configured to store at least one of a cycle number and a cycle limit of the battery.

23. The system of claim 19, further comprising:

a non-resettable timer configured to track the battery age; and

a watchdog timer configured to track the resting time.

24. The system of claim 19, wherein adjusting the charge-termination voltage of the battery based on the battery-usage parameters involves adjusting the charge-termination voltage based on a functional combination of multiple battery usage parameters.

25. The system of claim 19, further comprising:

a lookup table comprising a set of elements, wherein each of the elements comprises;

a threshold for a battery-usage parameter from the battery-usage parameters;

a first value associated with the charge-termination voltage; and

a second value associated with the discharge-termination voltage.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein adjusting the charge-termination voltage or the discharge-termination voltage based on the battery-usage parameters involves:

if the battery-usage parameter exceeds the threshold, setting the charge-termination voltage to the first value and the discharge-termination voltage to the second value.

27. A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method for managing use of a battery in a portable electronic device, the method comprising:

monitoring one or more battery-usage parameters of the battery during use of the battery with the portable electronic device, wherein the one or more battery-usage parameters comprise at least one of a swell rate, a temperature, a cell balance, a voltage, a current, a rate of change in battery capacity, an amount of time of banks in the battery can maintain a balanced state and user input; and

adjusting a charge-termination voltage of the battery based on the battery-usage parameters to manage at least one of a cycle life of the battery, the swell rate, and a runtime of the battery.

28. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 27, wherein the one or more battery-usage parameters additionally comprise at least one of the following:

a battery age;

a resting time; and

usage data about how the battery has been cycled.

29. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 27, the method further comprising:

adjusting a discharge-termination voltage of the battery based on the battery-usage parameters.

30. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 29, wherein the charge-termination voltage and the discharge-termination voltage are adjusted using a set of registers.

31. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 27, wherein adjusting the charge-termination voltage of the battery based on the battery-usage parameters involves:

if a battery-usage parameter from the battery-usage parameters exceeds a pre-specified threshold, reducing the charge-termination voltage.

32. The computer-implemented method of claim 27, wherein adjusting the discharge-termination voltage of the battery based on the battery-usage parameters involves adjusting the discharge-termination voltage based on a functional combination of multiple battery usage parameters.

33. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 27, wherein adjusting the charge-termination voltage of the battery based on the battery-usage parameters involves:

temporarily increasing the charge-termination voltage based on the user input.