Charging circuit for balance charging serially connected batteries

• US 8,288,999 B2
• Filed: 05/26/2009
• Issued: 10/16/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aeneas Energy Technology Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Aeneas Energy Technology Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Hsu, Deng-Hsien, Tsai, Wen-Ping, Yu, Zong-Long
• Primary Examiner(s): Tso, Edward
• Assistant Examiner(s): BOATENG, ALEXIS ASIEDUA
• Application Number:
  US12/471,728
• Publication Number:
  US 20090230921A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,239 Days
• Field of Search: 320/116, 320/119, 320/104, 320/120, 320/118, 320/103, 320/121, 320/128, 320/134, 320/136
• US Class Current: 320/137
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0014 Circuits for equalisation of charge between batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries

Abstract

A charging circuit includes a battery pack having a plurality of serially connected batteries and being connected to a power supply; a changeover switch being serially connected to and between any two adjacent batteries; and a precision voltage detector being parallelly connected to each of the batteries for independently detecting a voltage of the connected battery and sending out a detected result to a charging control circuit for controlling the ON/OFF of the changeover switch corresponding to the battery. When a battery is detected by a corresponding precision voltage detector as having been fully charged, the corresponding charging control circuit sets the changeover switch corresponding to the battery to OFF to stop charging the battery. The remaining batteries that are subsequently fully charged are disconnected from the power source one by one until all the batteries in the battery pack have been fully charged. Thus, all the batteries are balance-charged.

Claims

1. A charging circuit, capable of simultaneously charging and balancing serially connected batteries, comprising:

a battery pack including a plurality of serially connected batteries, wherein the serially connected batteries are connected to an output end and an input end of a power supply so that a constant charge current source is supplied by the power supply to the battery pack;

a plurality of changeover switches, each of the plurality of changeover switches is serially connected to and between two adjacent ones of the serially connected batteries, wherein the plurality of changeover switches are connected to at least one of a positive electrode and a negative electrode of the serially connected batteries without a particular limit; and

a plurality of precision voltage detectors, each of the plurality of precision voltage detectors is parallelly connected to one of the serially connected batteries for independently detecting a voltage of the serially connected battery parallelly connected thereto and sending out a detected result to a charging control circuit;

wherein the charging control circuit being independently connected to the plurality of changeover switches for controlling the plurality of changeover switches to ON or OFF based on the detected results sent from a plurality of corresponding precision voltage detectors;

wherein when the serially connected batteries are charged, the plurality of changeover switches are independently controlled by the charging control circuit connected thereto to ON so that the constant charge current source from the power supply is supplied to the serially connected batteries to charge the serially connected batteries;

wherein when any of the serially connected batteries is detected by at least one of the plurality of precision voltage detectors parallelly connected thereto as having been fully charged, a message is sent by at least one of the plurality of precision voltage detector to inform the corresponding charging control circuit of a fully charged battery, causing the charging control circuit to control the corresponding changeover switch to OFF so that the charge current source to the fully charged battery is supplied to a following battery via a by-pass circuit parallelly connected to the fully charged battery, and the fully charged battery is not further charged;

wherein a remaining battery that is subsequently fully charged is disconnected from the power supply one by one until a voltage different between the output end and the input end of the power supply is reached to a pre-determined valve to indicate that the charging process is completed.

3. The charging circuit for balance charging serially connected batteries as claimed in claim 1, wherein the plurality of serially connected batteries are selected from the group consisting of:

high-capacity capacitors and Li-ion batteries.

5. The charging circuit for balance charging serially connected batteries as claimed in claim 1, wherein the pre-determined value is set in according to a lowest voltage of each battery as an indication of a fully charged valve.

6. The charging circuit for balance charging serially connected batteries as claimed in claim 1, wherein the voltage different between the output end and the input end of the power supply is zero when the charging process is completed.

2. A charging circuit for balance charging serially connected batteries, comprising:

a battery pack including a plurality of serially connected batteries, and being connected to a power supply so that a constant charge current source is supplied by the power supply to the battery pack;

a plurality of N-type metal oxide semiconductors, each of the plurality of N-type metal oxide semiconductors is provided between two adjacent ones of the serially connected batteries;

a plurality of precision voltage detectors, each of the plurality of precision voltage detectors is parallelly connected to one of the plurality of serially connected batteries for independently detecting a voltage of a battery parallelly connected thereto and sending out a detected result to a charging control circuit, wherein the charging control circuit being independently connected to a plurality of changeover switches for controlling the plurality of changeover switches to ON or OFF based on the detected results sent from a plurality of corresponding precision voltage detectors; and

a plurality of P-type metal oxide semiconductors, each of the plurality of P-type metal oxide semiconductors is parallelly connected to one of the charging control circuits;

wherein each of the plurality of N-type metal oxide semiconductors is connected at a source to a preceding battery, at a drain to a following battery, and at a gate to an output of a corresponding charging control circuit, wherein each of the P-type metal oxide semiconductors is connected at a gate to the output of the corresponding charging control circuit, at a source to a positive electrode of the corresponding battery, and at a drain to the drain of a corresponding N-type metal oxide semiconductor;

wherein when the plurality of serially connected batteries are charged, the plurality of charging control circuits independently control the corresponding N-type metal oxide semiconductors to ON, and a corresponding P-type metal oxide semiconductors to OFF so that the constant charge current source from the power supply is supplied to each of the plurality of serially connected batteries to charge the plurality of serially connected batteries;

wherein when any of the plurality of serially connected batteries is detected by the plurality of precision voltage detector parallelly connected thereto as having been fully charged, at least one of the plurality of precision voltage detector sends out a message to inform the corresponding charging control circuit of a fully charged battery, causing the corresponding charging control circuit to control the corresponding N-type metal oxide semiconductor corresponding to the fully charged battery to OFF, and the corresponding P-type metal oxide semiconductor to ON so that the charge current source to the fully charged battery is supplied to a following battery via the P-type metal oxide semiconductor connected to the charging control circuit of the fully charged battery, and the fully charged battery is not further charged;

wherein a remaining battery that is subsequently fully charged is disconnected from the power supply one by one until all of the plurality of serially connected batteries in the battery pack have been fully charged.

4. The charging circuit for balance charging serially connected batteries as claimed in claim 2, wherein the plurality of serially connected batteries are selected from the group consisting:

of high-capacity capacitors and Li-ion batteries.