Battery pack fault communication and handling

• US 9,172,120 B2
• Filed: 11/02/2010
• Issued: 10/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sinoelectric Powertrain Corporation
• Original Assignee: Sinoelectric Powertrain Corporation
• Inventors: Pariseau, David Kevin, Wang, Yang, Collins, Michael Keith, Zhou, Peng
• Primary Examiner(s): Fleming, Fritz M
• Application Number:
  US12/938,255
• Publication Number:
  US 20120013201A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,820 Days
• Field of Search: 307/150
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/4257 Smart batteries, e.g. electronic circuits inside the housing of the cells or batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/48 Accumulators combined with arrangements for measuring, testing or indicating the condition of cells, e.g. the level or density of the electrolyte constructional details of current conducting connections for detecting conditions inside cells or batteries, e.g. details of voltage sensing terminals, H01M50/569
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0029 with safety or protection devices or circuits
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 Energy storage using batteries

Abstract

A method of handling a fault in a battery pack, the method comprising: a battery module supplying a voltage to a high-voltage circuit; a battery management system transmitting a heartbeat signal to the battery module via a fault bus; the battery module preventing the heartbeat signal from being transmitted back to the battery management system in response to the battery module detecting a critical condition; and the battery management system shutting off the supply of voltage from the battery module to the high-voltage circuit in response to the battery module preventing the heartbeat signal from being transmitted back to the battery management system. The battery module transmits battery data to the battery management system via a communication bus, which is distinct from the fault bus, and the battery management system transmits one or more commands to the battery module via the communication bus.

Claims

1. A battery pack fault communication and handling system comprising:

a battery module comprising at least one battery, wherein the battery module is configured to supply a voltage to a high-voltage circuit;

a fault bus; and

a Battery Management System (BMS) coupled to the battery module via the fault bus, wherein the BMS is configured to transmit a heartbeat signal to the battery module via the fault bus and to receive the heartbeat signal back from the battery module via the fault bus, and wherein the BMS is configured to shut off the supply of voltage from the battery module to the high-voltage circuit in response to the battery module preventing the BMS from receiving the heartbeat signal.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the battery module, the fault bus, and the BMS form a loop;

the BMS and the battery module are configured to pass the heartbeat signal through the loop;

the battery module is configured to prevent the heartbeat signal from returning to the BMS in response to detection of a critical condition.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the critical condition comprises one of over-charging a battery cell, over-discharging a battery cell, an isolation fault, a short-circuit, over-current, over-temperature, or over-power.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the battery module is configured to prevent the heartbeat signal from returning to the battery management system using an open-collector or open-drain transistor.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a communication bus distinct from the fault bus, wherein the BMS is coupled to the battery module via the communication bus, the battery module is configured to transmit battery data to the BMS via the communication bus, and the BMS is configured to transmit one or more commands to the battery module via the communication bus.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the communication bus is a Controller-Area-Network (CAN) bus.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the battery data comprises information related to at least one of the at least one battery'"'"'s remaining charge, rate of discharge, rate of charge, maximum cell voltage, minimum cell voltage, current state-of-charge, current state-of-health, or temperature.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the one or more commands comprises a command for the battery module to open or close a contactor for the at least one battery.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein the BMS is configured to ping the battery module via the communication bus in response to the battery module preventing the BMS from receiving the heartbeat signal.

10. The system of claim 5, wherein the battery module comprises:

a plurality of battery stacks, each battery stack comprising a plurality of batteries configured to supply a voltage to the high-voltage circuit;

a plurality of Battery-Monitoring-Units (BMUs), wherein each BMU corresponds to and is coupled to a distinct battery stack in the plurality of battery stacks, and each BMU is configured to monitor data about the plurality of batteries in the corresponding battery stack; and

a High-Voltage-Front-End (HVFE) unit coupled to the plurality of BMUs and configured to receive and process the data about the plurality of batteries.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the high-voltage circuit is incorporated into a vehicle.

12. A battery pack fault communication and handling system comprising:

a plurality of battery stacks, each battery stack comprising a plurality of batteries configured to supply a voltage to a high-voltage circuit;

a plurality of Battery-Monitoring-Units (BMUs), wherein each BMU corresponds to and is coupled to a distinct battery stack in the plurality of battery stacks, and each BMU is configured to monitor data about the plurality of batteries in the corresponding battery stack;

a communication bus;

a fault bus distinct from the communication bus; and

a Battery-Management-System (BMS) coupled to the plurality of BMUs via the communication bus and via the fault bus, wherein the BMS is configured to receive battery data from the plurality of BMUs and to send one or more commands to the plurality of BMUs via the communication bus, wherein the BMS is configured to send a heartbeat signal to the plurality of BMUs via the fault bus and to receive the heartbeat signal back from the BMUs via the fault bus, and wherein the BMS is configured to shut off the supply of voltage from the battery stacks to the high-voltage circuit in response to one of the BMUs preventing the BMS from receiving the heartbeat signal.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the data about the plurality of batteries includes at least one of current, voltage, temperature, maximum cell-voltage, minimum cell-voltage, current state-of-charge, and current state-of-health.

14. The system of claim 12, further comprising a High-Voltage-Front-End (HVFE) unit coupled to the BMS and to the plurality of BMUs, wherein the HVFE unit is configured to receive the data about the plurality of batteries from each BMU and to process the received data.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the HVFE unit is configured to:

process the received data to produce calculated battery information; and

transmit the calculated battery information to the BMS.

16. The system of claim 14 wherein:

the plurality of BMUs, the HVFE unit, the fault bus, and the BMS form a loop;

the BMS, the HVFE, and the BMUs are configured to pass the heartbeat signal through the loop;

the plurality of BMUs is configured to prevent the heartbeat signal from returning to the BMS in response to detection of a critical condition.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the critical condition comprises one of over-charging a battery cell, over-discharging a battery cell, an isolation fault, a short-circuit, over-current, over-temperature, or over-power.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the plurality of BMUs is configured to prevent the heartbeat signal from returning to the BMS using an open-collector or an open-drain transistor.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein the communication bus is a Controller-Area-Network (CAN) bus.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein the one or more commands comprises a command to open or close a contactor for at least one of the batteries.

21. The system of claim 12, wherein the BMS is configured to ping the BMUs via the communication bus in response to one of the BMUs preventing the BMS from receiving the heartbeat signal.

22. The system of claim 12, further comprising a reset bus coupled between the BMS and the plurality of BMUs, wherein the reset bus is distinct from the communication bus, and wherein the BMS is configured to perform a hardware reset on all of the BMUs via the reset bus.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the BMS is configured to perform a hardware reset on all of the BMUs via the reset bus in response to a reset condition, wherein the reset condition comprises one of the BMUs preventing the BMS from receiving the heartbeat signal.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the reset condition further comprises the BMS attempting to communicate with the BMUs via the communication bus after one of the BMUs prevents the BMS from receiving the heartbeat signal.

25. The system of claim 22, wherein the BMS is configured to apply a reset signal to the plurality of BMUs via the reset bus for a period of time, wherein the reset signal is configured to shut off the BMUs.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the period of time during which BMS applies the reset signal lasts until after the BMS receives an indication that all of the BMUs have been reset.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein the period of time during which BMS applies the reset signal lasts until a predetermined amount of delay time after the BMS receives an indication signal via the reset bus that all of the BMUs have been reset.

28. A method of handling a fault in a battery pack, the method comprising:

a battery module supplying a voltage to a high-voltage circuit;

a Battery-Management-System (BMS) transmitting a heartbeat signal to the battery module via a fault bus;

the battery module preventing the heartbeat signal from being transmitted back to the BMS in response to the battery module detecting a critical condition; and

the BMS shutting off the supply of voltage from the battery module to the high-voltage circuit in response to the battery module preventing the heartbeat signal from being transmitted back to the BMS.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the critical condition comprises one of overcharging a battery cell, over-discharging a battery cell, an isolation fault, a short-circuit, or over-current.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein preventing the heartbeat signal from being transmitted back to the battery management system is performed using an open-collector or an open-drain transistor.

31. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

the battery module transmitting battery data to the BMS via a communication bus, wherein the communication bus is distinct from the fault bus;

the BMS transmitting one or more commands to the battery module via the communication bus.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the communication bus is a CAN-bus.

33. The method of claim 31, wherein the battery data comprises information related to at least one of a remaining charge, a rate of discharge, a rate of charge, temperature, maximum cell-voltage, minimum cell-voltage, current state-of-charge, and current state-of-health.

34. The method of claim 31, wherein the one or more commands comprises a command for the battery module to open or close a contactor for a battery.

35. The method of claim 31, further comprising the BMS communicating with the battery module via the communication bus to discover the critical condition in response to the battery module preventing the heartbeat signal from being transmitted back to the BMS.

36. The method of claim 31, wherein the battery module comprises:

a plurality of battery stacks, wherein each battery stack comprising a plurality of batteries that supply a voltage to the high-voltage circuit;

a plurality of BMUs, wherein each BMU corresponds to and is coupled to a distinct battery stack in the plurality of battery stacks, and each BMU monitors data about the plurality of batteries in the corresponding battery stack; and

a High-Voltage-Front-End (HVFE) unit coupled to the plurality of BMUs, wherein the HVFE unit receives and processes the data about the plurality of batteries.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein:

the HVFE unit processes the received data to produce calculated battery information; and

the HVFE unit transmits the calculated battery information to the BMS via the communication bus.

38. The method of claim 36, wherein a reset bus is coupled between the BMS and the plurality of BMUs, the reset bus is distinct from the communication bus, and the BMS performs a hardware reset on all of the BMUs via the reset bus.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein the BMS applies a reset signal to the plurality of BMUs via the reset bus for a period of time, wherein the reset signal shuts off the BMUs.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein the period of time during which BMS applies the reset signal lasts until after the BMS receives an indication that all of the BMUs have been reset.

41. The method of claim 39, wherein the period of time during which BMS applies the reset signal lasts until a predetermined amount of delay time after the BMS receives an indication signal via the reset bus that all of the BMUs have been reset.

42. The method of claim 38, wherein the BMS performs a hardware reset on all of the BMUs via the reset bus in response to a reset condition, wherein the reset condition comprises one of the BMUs preventing the BMS from receiving the heartbeat signal.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein the reset condition further comprises the BMS attempting to communicate with the BMUs via the communication bus after one of the BMUs prevents the BMS from receiving the heartbeat signal.

44. The method of claim 28, wherein the high-voltage circuit is incorporated into a vehicle.