Instrumented super-cell

• US 9,954,384 B2
• Filed: 05/13/2016
• Issued: 04/24/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Indigo Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Nucleus Scientific, Incorporated
• Inventors: Hunter, Ian W., Lafontaine, Serge R., Hemond, Brian D., Wahab, Adam
• Primary Examiner(s): Fantu, Yalkew
• Application Number:
  US15/153,879
• Publication Number:
  US 20160336762A1
• Time in Patent Office: 711 Days
• Field of Search: 320107
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/052 Li-accumulators
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/0525 Rocking-chair batteries, i.e. batteries with lithium insertion or intercalation in both electrodes; Lithium-ion batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/4257 Smart batteries, e.g. electronic circuits inside the housing of the cells or batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/44 Methods for charging or discharging circuits for charging H02J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/443 in response to temperature
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/46 Accumulators structurally combined with charging apparatus circuits for charging H02J7/00
• 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: H01M 10/486 for measuring temperature
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 2010/4271 Battery management systems including electronic circuits, e.g. control of current or voltage to keep battery in healthy state, cell balancing
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 2010/4278 Systems for data transfer from batteries, e.g. transfer of battery parameters to a controller, data transferred between battery controller and main controller
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 2220/30 Batteries in portable systems, e.g. mobile phone, laptop
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 50/224 Metals
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 50/227 Organic material
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00034 Charger exchanging data with an electronic device, i.e. telephone, whose internal battery is under charge
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00036 Charger exchanging data with battery
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00047 with provisions for charging different types of batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0047 with monitoring or indicating devices or 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 7/0063 with circuits adapted for supplying loads from the battery
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/007 : Regulation of charging or discharging current or voltage
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/345 : using capacitors as storage or buffering devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 : Energy storage using batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 : Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries

Abstract

An energy storage system for use with an external device including: an energy storage cell; a microcontroller; an internal communication bus; an interface including two power terminals and a communications port electrically connected to the internal communication bus; power conversion circuitry for performing a charging operation during which energy is transferred from the power terminals to the energy storage cell and a discharging operation during which energy is transferred from the energy storage cell to the power terminals; and one or more sensors for monitoring one or more parameters of the energy storage cell, wherein it is all packaged to form a single, integrated unit.

Claims

1. An energy storage system for use with an external device, said energy storage system comprising:

an energy storage cell;

a microcontroller;

an internal communication bus over which the external device can communicate with the microcontroller;

an interface through which the external device electrically connects to the energy storage system, said interface including two power terminals and a communications port electrically connected to the internal communication bus;

power conversion circuitry connected between the power terminals and the energy storage cell, said power conversion circuitry for performing a charging operation during which energy is transferred from the power terminals to the energy storage cell and a discharging operation during which energy is transferred from the energy storage cell to the power terminals; and

one or more sensors for monitoring one or more parameters of the energy storage cell,

wherein the microcontroller is programmed to control the operation of the power conversion circuitry during the charging and discharging operations based on the one or more monitored parameters of the energy storage cell, and

wherein the energy storage cell, the power electronics, the microcontroller, the interface, the internal communication bus, and the one or more sensors are packaged to form a single, integrated unit.

2. The energy storage system of claim 1, further comprising an epoxy encapsulating the energy storage cell, the power conversion electronics, the microcontroller, the interface, the internal communication bus, and the one or more sensors to create the single, integrated unit.

3. The energy storage system of claim 1, further comprising a housing surrounding and containing the energy storage cell, the power conversion electronics, the microcontroller, the interface, the internal communication bus, and the one or more sensors to create the single, integrated unit.

4. The energy storage system of claim 1, wherein the microcontroller is programmed to employ a charging model and the monitored one or more parameters from the one or more sensors to control the power electronics when performing the charging operation.

5. The energy storage system of claim 1, wherein microcontroller is programmed to operate the power conversion electronics as a boost converter during the discharging operation.

6. The energy storage system of claim 1, wherein microcontroller is programmed to operate the power conversion electronics as a buck converter during the charging operation.

7. The energy storage system of claim 1, further comprising a low power supply that is part of the single, integrated unit and wherein the interface includes low power terminals electrically connected to the low power supply.

8. The energy storage system of claim 1, wherein the energy storage cell is a lithium cell.

9. The energy storage system of claim 1, wherein the one or more sensors are selected from the group consisting of a voltage sensor arranged to sense a voltage of the energy storage cell, a current sensor arranged to sense a current of the energy storage cell, a reference electrode within the energy storage cell, and a temperature sensor arranged to sense a temperature of the energy storage cell.

10. The energy storage system of claim 1, wherein the one or more sensors include a voltage sensor arranged to sense a voltage of the energy storage cell, a current sensor arranged to sense a current of the energy storage cell, a reference electrode within the energy storage cell, and a temperature sensor arranged to sense a temperature of the energy storage cell.

11. The energy storage system of claim 1, wherein the internal communication bus is a digital communication bus.

12. The energy storage system of claim 1, further comprising a communication protocol for communications over the communication bus, wherein the communication protocol is an I²C communication protocol.

13. The energy storage system of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of registers which during operation store one or more of the one or more monitored parameters of the energy storage cell, wherein at least some of the plurality of registers are readable by the load device via the internal communication bus.

14. The energy storage system of claim 13, wherein during operation the plurality of registers stores a state of charge for the energy storage cell.

15. The energy storage system of claim 13, wherein the plurality of registers includes a subset of registers for storing parameters characterizing a charging model that the microcontroller uses to control the charging operation.

16. The energy storage system of claim 15, wherein the subset of registers is in volatile memory.

17. The energy storage system of claim 1, wherein the microcontroller is further programmed to use the one or more monitored parameters of the energy storage cell to compute a state of charge for the energy storage cell.

18. The energy storage system of claim 1, wherein the microcontroller is further programmed to compute a state of health for the energy storage cell and use the computed state of health to manage the charging operation.

19. The energy storage system of claim 18, wherein the state of health is based on a energy storage capacity of the energy storage cell as determined by the microprocessor.

20. The energy storage system of claim 1, wherein the power conversion circuitry comprises a bidirectional half-bridge conversion circuit.

21. The energy storage system of claim 1, wherein the microcontroller is further programmed to perform critical limit checks using the one or more monitored parameters.

22. The energy storage system of claim 1, wherein the microcontroller is further programmed to perform fault handling if a problem in operation is detected.