Wireless battery area network for a smart battery management system

• US 9,293,935 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2011
• Issued: 03/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Navitas Solutions, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Navitas Solutions, Inc.
• Inventors: Lee, Jaesik, Lee, Inseop, Lee, Minkyu, Chon, Andrew M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Williams, Arun
• Application Number:
  US13/881,190
• Publication Number:
  US 20130271072A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,604 Days
• Field of Search: 320/108
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/371 with remote indication, e.g. on external chargers
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/4207 for several batteries or cells simultaneously or sequentially
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/441 for several batteries or cells simultaneously or sequentially
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/46 Accumulators structurally combined with charging apparatus circuits for charging H02J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0019 using switched or multiplexed charge circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0048 Detection of remaining charge capacity or state of charge [SOC]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/005 Detection of state of health [SOH]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0069 Charging or discharging for charge maintenance, battery initiation or rejuvenation
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/43 using wireless personal area networks [WPAN], e.g. 802.15, 802.15.1, 802.15.4, Bluetooth or ZigBee
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/47 using RFID associated with sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom

Abstract

A Wireless battery area network permits the wirelessly monitoring and controlling of individual batteries within large-scale battery applications. The system automatically configures its wireless nodes in the network and provides for the linking of a plurality of batteries (10) to a master battery management unit (M-BMU) (100) by establishing a wireless battery area network within a battery pack that include slave units (S-BMU) (210). The entire system may also be controlled by a top level battery management unit (T-BMU) (510). The system and method allows for the monitoring of voltage, current, temperature, or impedance of individual batteries and for the balancing or bypassing of a battery.

Claims

1. A wireless battery area network (WiBaAN) system for intelligent battery pack management comprising:

a plurality of master battery management units (M-BMU) (100);

a plurality of sensor battery management units (S-BMU) (210) each connected to at least one corresponding battery cell (10) and at least one sensor (240) configured to monitor said at least one corresponding battery cell (10), wherein each of said S-BMUs (210) is directly connected to and directly controlled by at least one of the plurality of M-BMUs (100) by a first wireless mode;

at least one top level battery management unit (T-BMU) (510) configured to control the operations of the plurality of M-BMUs, wherein said at least one T-BMU is wirelessly connected to each the plurality of M-BMUs (100) by a second wireless mode;

wherein each of the plurality of M-BMUs includes

at least one radio device which receives information directly from each S-BMU based on the monitoring, and transmits at least one of balance and bypass control information directly to each of the plurality of S-BMUs based on the received information, and

at least one processor device which is configured to determine at least one of a state-of-charge (SoC) and a state-of-health (SoH) of each battery cell based on the information which has been received from each S-BMU, and wherein each of said M-BMUs is configured to transfer at least one of SoC data and SoH data to the T-BMU by using the second wireless mode.

2. The system according to claim 1 further comprising a rebalancing module (250, 251) connected to a plurality of battery cells (10) for rebalancing the charge between said plurality of battery cells (10),

wherein whenever a first of the plurality of battery cells (10) reaches approximately a maximum charge its excess charge is automatically redistributed to a second of the plurality of battery cells (10) that is under said maximum charge.

3. The system according to claim 2 wherein said rebalancing module (250, 251) is configured to disconnect a cell (10) from the rest of said system.

4. The system according to claim 1 further comprising:

a secondary protection module (600) configured to wirelessly receive fault signals from said S-BMUs (210) on a condition that said at least one M-BMU (100) is not responsive to fault signals from at least one S-BMU (210), wherein said secondary protection module further configured to operate independently.

5. The system according to claim 4, wherein said fault signals from said S-BMUs (210) include at least one of an indication of over voltage of a battery cell and an indication of under voltage of a battery cell.

6. The system according to claim 1 wherein said battery cells (10) are located in a metal case and S-BMUs (210) are respectively mounted directly on said case.

7. The system according to claim 6 wherein said system further comprises:

a plurality of wireless repeaters (610) attached respectively to individual S-BMUs (210) and configured to wirelessly communicate with said M-BMUs (100) to extend the wireless range of said S-BMUs (210).

8. The system according to claim 1 wherein the at least one sensor (240) measures a condition of said battery cell (10) selected from the group consisting of:

voltage, current, impedance and temperature.

9. The system according to claim 1 wherein said first wireless mode is a time division multiplexing (TDM).

10. The system according to claim 9 wherein said second wireless mode is a frequency division multiplexing (FDM).

11. The system according to claim 10 wherein said first and second wireless modes communicate in a duplex fashion.

12. The system according to claim 11 wherein said system has a star network topology.

13. The system according to claim 12 wherein said S-BMU (210) is integrated on a single chip.

14. The system according to claim 1, wherein said first wireless mode is a frequency division mode (FDM) and said second wireless mode is a time division mode (TDM).