Pulse charger

• US 6,534,955 B1
• Filed: 03/13/2002
• Issued: 03/18/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Inventec Corporation
• Original Assignee: Inventec Corporation
• Inventors: Wae, Ching Chuan
• Primary Examiner(s): Tso, Edward H.
• Application Number:
  US10/095,709
• Time in Patent Office: 370 Days
• Field of Search: 320/124, 320/125, 320/128, 320/137, 320/139, 320/141, 320/145
• US Class Current: 320/139
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/44 Methods for charging or discharging circuits for charging H02J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00711 with introduction of pulses during the charging process
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 Energy storage using batteries

Abstract

A pulse charger that utilizes a charging strategy to compensate the physical characteristic of a secondary battery. That is, electrical current is supplied is based on the electric voltage of a secondary battery. According to the above concept, the pulse charger of the invention mainly contains: an on/off switch, a switch control circuit and a counter control circuit. The counter control circuit connects to the secondary battery to generate a resonant frequency that is in proportion to the electric voltage. The switch control circuit utilizes the resonant frequency output to control the on/off switchcounter control circuit for switching between the power and the secondary battery.

Claims

1. A pulse charger for charging a secondary battery, comprising:

an on/off switch connected a power supply and the secondary battery, for switching the connection of the power supply and the secondary battery to generate a pulse output for charging the secondary battery;

a counter control circuit connected with the secondary battery to detect an electric voltage of the secondary battery and generate a resonant frequency output in proportion to the electric voltage; and

a switch control circuit connected with the on/off switch and the counter control circuit to receive the resonant frequency output for controlling a switching rate of the on/off switch.

2. The pulse charger of claim 1, wherein the power includes a converter and a transformer.

3. The pulse charger of claim 1, wherein the counter control circuit includes a resonator to generate the resonant frequency output according to electric voltage of the secondary battery.

4. The pulse charger of claim 3, wherein the resonator is a resonator NE555.

5. The pulse charger of claim 1, wherein the switch control circuit includes a counter to receive the resonant frequency and output an on/off switch signal.

6. The pulse charger of claim 5, wherein the counter is a counter 4520.

7. In a method of charging a secondary battery, of the type wherein an output pulse of a charger is controlled by a electric voltage value of a secondary battery to charge the secondary battery, the improvement comprising:

outputting the pulse in a frequency in proportion to a electric voltage of the secondary battery and the time of outputting the pulse is the same.