CHARGING DEVICE

• US 20140084853A1
• Filed: 10/01/2012
• Published: 03/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/11/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nichicon Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nichicon Corporation
• Inventors: Ohkuma, Shigeo, Mitsuya, Takamasa, Sugishita, Haruto
• Granted Patent: US 9,124,117 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 320/107
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/0525 Rocking-chair batteries, i.e. batteries with lithium insertion or intercalation in both electrodes; Lithium-ion batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 2220/20 Batteries in motive systems, e.g. vehicle, ship, plane
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2207/20 Charging or discharging characterised by the power electronics converter
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00 Circuit arrangements for charging or depolarising batteries or for supplying loads from batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/02 for charging batteries from ac mains by converters
• 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

The present invention addresses the problem of providing a charging device capable of precisely outputting charging power to a battery or the like within a broad voltage range of tens-to-hundreds of volts. This charging device comprises: a converter unit that outputs a charging voltage to a battery and a control unit that outputs a control signal of a pulse width determined on the basis of the voltage value of the charging voltage to a switching element of the converter unit, thereby setting the switching element to a conducting state for only a time corresponding to the pulse width. The control unit changes the output interval for the control signal in accordance with the output interval for the control signal as the voltage value of the charging voltage decreases.

Claims

1. A charging device comprising:

a converter portion for outputting a charging voltage to a charging subject; and

a control portion for outputting a control signal having a pulse width determined based on a value of the charging voltage to a switching element in the converter portion, thereby rendering the switching element in an on-state for a time period corresponding to the pulse width, wherein,

the control portion changes an interval at which to output the control signal in accordance with the value of the charging voltage, thereby lengthening the output interval of the control signal as the value of the charging voltage decreases.

2. The charging device according to claim 1, wherein the control portion regularly omits the control signal which is otherwise kept outputted at predetermined intervals, thereby lengthening the output interval of the control signal that is actually outputted.

3. The charging device according to claim 2, wherein,

the control portion comprises:

a storage portion having count defaults stored therein in correlation with values of the charging voltage;

a pulse width determination portion for determining a pulse width of the control signal on the basis of a value of the charging voltage and a count default stored in the storage portion;

a control signal output portion for counting down a count value from the count default to zero and outputting the control signal with the pulse width determined by the pulse width determination portion, and

the count default to be read from the storage portion increases as the value of the charging voltage decreases.

4. The charging device according to claim 3, wherein the pulse width determination portion determines the pulse width of the control signal on the basis of the value of the charging voltage at the time the count value reaches zero.