Charge control circuit

• US 8,289,000 B2
• Filed: 09/01/2008
• Issued: 10/16/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/06/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Nishida, Junji
• Primary Examiner(s): Muralidar, Richard V
• Application Number:
  US12/666,136
• Publication Number:
  US 20100320973A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,506 Days
• Field of Search: 320/144, 320/145, 320/160, 320/162, 320/163, 323282-285
• US Class Current: 320/145
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/44 Methods for charging or discharging circuits for charging H02J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0071 with a programmable schedule
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/007182 in response to battery voltage
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/04 Regulation of charging current or voltage
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 3/1588 comprising at least one synchronous rectifier element H02M3/1582, H02M3/1584 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 40/00 Technologies aiming at improving the efficiency of home appliances, e.g. induction cooking or efficient technologies for refrigerators, freezers or dish washers
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/10 Technologies improving the efficiency by using switched-mode power supplies [SMPS], i.e. efficient power electronics conversion e.g. power factor correction or reduction of losses in power supplies or efficient standby modes
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 Energy storage using batteries

Abstract

When a control circuit detects from a signal CPO4 that a battery voltage is less than a sixth reference voltage, a constant current operation in VFM control is performed with respect to a switching transistor and a synchronous rectification transistor in accordance with signals RVDET and CPO3. Furthermore, when the control circuit detects from the signal CPO4 that the battery voltage becomes equal to or greater than the sixth reference voltage, the constant current operation in PWM control is performed in accordance with a signal CPO2. When an output signal CVDET from a constant current/constant voltage switching detection circuit becomes high level, operation control with respect to the switching transistor and the synchronous rectification transistor is switched from the PWM control of constant current operations to the PWM control of constant voltage operations in accordance with a signal CPO1.

Claims

1. A charge control circuit that includes a non-insulated step-down switching regulator using an inductor and charges a secondary battery connected to an output terminal using a voltage input to an input terminal as a power supply, the charge control circuit comprising:

a switching element that performs a switching operation in accordance with an input control signal and charges the inductor with the input voltage;

a rectification element that discharges the inductor;

a current detection circuit part that generates a proportional current proportional to a current flowing to the switching element and generates and outputs a current sense voltage corresponding to the proportional current; and

a control circuit part that performs PWM control for constant voltage output operations with respect to the switching element in accordance with a current mode control method using the current sense voltage at the time of constant voltage charging in which a constant voltage is supplied to the secondary battery for charging, and performs PWM control for constant current output operations with respect to the switching element at the time of constant current charging in which a constant current is supplied to the secondary battery for charging;

wherein

the control circuit part compares the current sense voltage with a fourth reference voltage generated by adding a difference voltage between a second predetermined reference voltage and the current sense voltage to the second reference voltage, and performs the PWM control for the constant current output operations using a pulse signal indicating a comparison result.

2. The charge control circuit according to claim 1, wherein,

when performing the PWM control for the constant current output operations, the control circuit part turns on the switching element in accordance with a predetermined clock signal for setting a control cycle of the PWM control to establish an electrical connection and turns off the switching element in accordance with the pulse signal indicating the comparison result to cut off the electrical connection.

3. The charge control circuit according to claim 2, wherein

the control circuit part turns off the switching element when the current sense voltage becomes equal to or greater than the fourth reference voltage.

4. The charge control circuit according to claim 3, wherein

the control circuit part has:

a switched capacitor circuit that generates the fourth reference voltage from the second reference voltage; and

a second voltage comparison circuit that compares the current sense voltage with the fourth reference voltage.

5. The charge control circuit according to claim 1, wherein,

when performing the PWM control using the current mode control method, the control circuit part compares a slope voltage generated by compensating for a slope with respect to the current sense voltage using a predetermined method with a voltage corresponding to a difference voltage between a proportional voltage proportional to a battery voltage of the secondary battery and a first predetermined reference voltage, and performs switching control of the switching element in accordance with a comparison result.

6. The charge control circuit according to claim 5, wherein

the control circuit part compares a phase of the pulse signal indicating the comparison result of the fourth reference voltage and the current sense voltage with a phase of the pulse signal indicating the comparison result of the slope voltage and the voltage corresponding to the difference voltage between the proportional voltage and the first reference voltage, and switches from the PWM control for the constant current output operations to the PWM control for the constant voltage output operations when the phases of the pulse signals match each other.

7. The charge control circuit according to claim 5, wherein

the control circuit part further has

a proportional voltage generation circuit that generates and outputs the proportional voltage;

an error amplification circuit that amplifies and outputs the difference voltage between the proportional voltage and the first reference voltage;

a slope circuit that generates the slope voltage from the current sense voltage and outputs the slope voltage; and

a first voltage comparison circuit that compares an output voltage of the error amplification circuit with the slope voltage.

8. The charge control circuit according to claim 1, wherein

the control circuit part performs VFM control for constant current output operations with respect to the switching element at the time of the constant current charging in which the constant current is supplied to the secondary battery for charging when a voltage of the secondary battery is less than a predetermined value, and performs the PWM control for the constant current output operations when the voltage of the secondary battery is equal to or greater than the predetermined value.

9. The charge control circuit according to claim 8, wherein,

when performing the VFM control, the control circuit part compares the current sense voltage with a third predetermined reference voltage and turns off the switching element in accordance with a comparison result, and detects whether an inductor current flowing to the inductor becomes zero and turns on the switching element in accordance with a detection result.

10. The charge control circuit according to claim 9, wherein

the control circuit part turns off the switching element when the current sense voltage becomes equal to or greater than the third reference voltage and turns on the switching element when a voltage of a joint between the switching element and the inductor exceeds a ground potential.

11. The charge control circuit according to claim 10, wherein

the control circuit part further has:

a third voltage comparison circuit that compares the current sense voltage with the third reference voltage; and

a fourth voltage comparison circuit that compares the voltage of the joint between the switching element and the inductor with the ground potential.

12. The charge control circuit according to claim 1, wherein

the control circuit part turns off the switching element to cut off the electrical connection and supplies a predetermined constant current to the secondary battery at the time of the constant current charging in which the constant current is supplied to the secondary battery for charging when the voltage of the secondary battery is less than the predetermined value.

13. The charge control circuit according to claim 12, wherein

the control circuit part stops supplying the constant current to the secondary battery and performs the PWM control for the constant current output operations when the battery voltage of the secondary battery becomes equal to or greater than the predetermined value.

14. The charge control circuit according to claim 1, wherein

the control circuit part detects that the charging of the secondary battery is completed when a value obtained by calculating a square root of an inductor current flowing to the inductor when the switching element is turned on is equal to a value obtained by calculating a square root of a predetermined charge completion current setting value.