Intelligent serial battery charger and charging block

• US 6,580,249 B2
• Filed: 10/09/2001
• Issued: 06/17/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/2001
• Status: Expired

• Current Assignee: GPE International Limited (Gold Peak Industries Limited)
• Original Assignee: GPE International Limited (Gold Peak Industries Limited)
• Inventors: Bai, Long, Yau, Kwok Wong, Li, Yiu Cheung
• Primary Examiner(s): Tso, Edward H.
• Assistant Examiner(s): TIBBITS, PIA FLORENCE
• Application Number:
  US09/971,593
• Publication Number:
  US 20030042870A1
• Time in Patent Office: 616 Days
• Field of Search: 320/120, 320/122, 307/54, 307/60, 307/63, 307/77, 307/100, 307/125, 361/88
• US Class Current: 320/122
• CPC Class Codes: A61P 19/00 Drugs for skeletal disorders
• CPC Class Codes: A61P 29/00 Non-central analgesic, antipyretic or antiinflammatory agents, e.g. antirheumatic agents; Non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs [NSAID]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0013 acting upon several batteries simultaneously or sequentially H02J7/1423 takes precedence

Abstract

A serial battery charger including a number of serially connected battery charging sections in which the battery charging section is characterized by a first and second parallelly connected branches. The first branch includes terminals for connecting to the battery to be charged and a current blocking device and the second branch includes a by-passing switch which shunts across the terminals of the first branch when activated. The blocking device in the first branch prevents adverse reverse current flow from the battery to the charger when there is no power supply and also functions as a current block to prevent adverse flow of current from the battery into the shunting by-passing switch when the power supply to the charging section is in operation. This invention provides a simple solution to fulfil the conflicting requirements of an intelligent serial battery charger.

Claims

1. A serial battery charger including a charging section which includes at least first and second parallelly connected branches, said first parallel branch includes an electronically controllable by-passing switch and said second parallel branch includes positive and negative terminals for receiving respectfully the positive and negative terminals of a battery and an one-way electronic device connected in series, said by-passing switch has a very low impedance when turned-on and a very high impedance when turned-off, said one-way electronic device is characterised in that it has a very low-impedance when current flows from said charging section into said battery terminals and it has a high-impedance when said by-passing switch is turned on.

2. A battery charger according to claim 1, further including a micro-controller to monitor at least one parameter of the battery being charged and activate said by-passing switch by forming a low-impedance shunting across said first parallel branch when one or more of said measured battery parameters satisfies a pre-determined condition.

3. A battery charger according to claim 2, wherein said battery parameter include any one or more of the following parameters:

-open-circuit voltage, close-circuit voltage and the temperature of said battery.

4. A battery charger according to claim 3, wherein said battery parameters further include the detection of the type and presence of a battery.

5. A battery charger according to claim 1, wherein said one-way electronic device is a diode.

6. A battery charger according to claim 1, wherein said by-passing switch is a field-effect-transistor (“

FET”

), including a MOSFET.

7. A battery charger according to claim 6, wherein said gate terminal of said FET is connected to said micro-controller for activating and de-activating said by-passing switch.

8. A charging block for use in a serial battery charger including at least first and second parallelly connected branches, said first parallel branch includes an electronically controllable by-passing switch and said second parallel branch includes positive and negative terminals for receiving respectfully the positive and negative terminals of a battery and an one-way electronic device connected in series, said by-passing switch has a very low impedance when turned-on and a very high impedance when turned-off, said one-way electronic device is characterised in that it has a very low-impedance when current flows from said charging section into said battery terminals and a high-impedance when said by-passing switch is turned on.

9. A charging block according to claim 8, further including a micro-controller to monitor at least one parameter of the battery being charged and activate said by-passing switch by forming a low-impedance shunting across said first parallel branch when one or more said measured battery parameters satisfies a pre-determined condition.

10. A serial battery charger including a battery charging section which includes at least first and second parallely connected branches, wherein said first branch includes a diode serially connected with the terminals for connecting the battery to be charged and said second branch includes a MOSFET by-passing switch, said by-passing switch is connected across said first branch and provides low-impedance shunting when activated, said blocking diode has a low-impedance when current flows into said battery to be charged and has a high-impedance when there is no power supply from said battery charger or when said by-passing switch is turned on.

11. A battery charger according the claim 10, wherein the gate of said by-passing MOSFET is connected to a micro-controller which controls the gate voltage of said MOSFET to turn on or turn off said MOSFET such that when said MOSFET is turned on, the impedance across the drain-source terminals of said MOSFET is low, thereby activating the by-passing function, and, when said MOSFET is turned off, the impedance across the drain-source terminals is very high, thereby de-activating the by-passing function.

12. A battery charger including a plurality of battery charging sections which are connected in series, wherein each said charging section includes at least first and second parallelly connected branches, said first parallel branch includes an electronically controllable by-passing switch and said second parallel branch includes positive and negative terminals for receiving respectfully the positive and negative terminals of a battery and an one-way electronic device connected in series, said by-passing switch has a very low impedance when turned-on and a very high impedance when turned-off, said one-way electronic device is characterised in that it has a very low-impedance when current flows from said charging section into said battery terminals and it has a high-impedance when said by-passing switch is turned on.

13. A battery charger according to claim 12, further including a micro-controller to monitor at least one parameter of the battery being charged and activate said by-passing switch by forming a low-impedance shunting across said first parallel branch when one or more of said measured battery parameters satisfies a pre-determined condition.

14. A battery charger according to claim 12, wherein said one-way electronic device is a diode.