Battery pack

• US 7,675,266 B2
• Filed: 02/12/2007
• Issued: 03/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsumi Electric Co., Ltd. (MinebeaMitsumi Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Mitsumi Electric Co., Ltd. (MinebeaMitsumi Inc.)
• Inventors: Ikeuchi, Akira, Nakano, Itsuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Tso; Edward
• Assistant Examiner(s): WILLIAMS, ARUN C
• Application Number:
  US11/706,485
• Publication Number:
  US 20070188133A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,121 Days
• Field of Search: 320/132, 320/134, 320/135, 320/149, 324/472, 324/428, 324/432
• US Class Current: 320/132
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/44 Methods for charging or discharging circuits for charging H02J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 Energy storage using batteries

Abstract

A battery pack is disclosed. The battery pack includes a battery; a current detecting unit which detects charging and discharging currents of the battery and outputs an analog signal corresponding to the charging and discharging currents; a modulating unit which modulates the analog signal to be a PDM (pulse density modulation) signal by applying a PDM modulation to the analog signal; a memory in which a conversion program for converting the PDM signal into PCM (pulse code modulation) data and a remaining battery charge calculating program for calculating a remaining battery charge by accumulating the PCM data are stored; and a CPU, which converts the PDM signal into the PCM data which are digital data by being supplied the PDM signal from the modulating unit while executing the conversion program stored in the memory, and calculates the remaining battery charge by accumulating the PCM data while executing the remaining battery charge calculating program stored in the memory.

Claims

1. A battery pack, comprising:

a battery;

a current detecting unit which detects charging and discharging currents of the battery and outputs an analog signal corresponding to the charging and discharging currents;

a modulating unit which modulates the analog signal to be a PDM (pulse density modulation) signal by applying a PDM modulation to the analog signal;

a memory in which a conversion program for converting the PDM signal into PCM (pulse code modulation) data and a remaining battery charge calculating program for calculating a remaining battery charge by accumulating the PCM data are stored; and

a CPU, which converts the PDM signal into the PCM data which are digital data by being supplied the PDM signal from the modulating unit while executing the conversion program stored in the memory, and calculates the remaining battery charge by accumulating the PCM data while executing the remaining battery charge calculating program stored in the memory.

2. The battery pack as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

the CPU intermittently executes the conversion program, loads the PDM signal from the modulating unit, and converts the PDM signal into the PCM data.

3. The battery pack as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a voltage detecting unit which detects a voltage of the battery;

a temperature detecting unit which detect ambient temperature of the battery pack; and

a selecting unit which selects one of analog signals detected from the current detecting unit, the voltage detecting unit, and the temperature detecting unit;

wherein

the remaining battery charge calculating program corrects the remaining battery charge by using the PCM data of the voltage detected by the voltage detecting unit and the PCM data of the temperature detected by the temperature detecting unit when the remaining battery charge calculating program accumulates the PCM data of the charging and discharging currents.

4. The battery pack as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

the modulating unit is a sigma-delta modulator.

5. The battery pack as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

the current detecting unit, the modulating unit, the memory, and the CPU are integrated into one semiconductor integrated circuit.