BATTERY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD OF DRIVING THE SAME

• US 20140347013A1
• Filed: 03/27/2014
• Published: 11/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/23/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung SDI Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Samsung SDI Company Limited
• Inventors: Kim, Seong-Joong
• Granted Patent: US 9,537,328 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 320/134
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/382 Arrangements for monitoring battery or accumulator variables, e.g. SoC
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/3842 combining voltage and current measurements
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/396 Acquisition or processing of data for testing or for monitoring individual cells or groups of cells within a battery
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0014 Circuits for equalisation of charge between batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0016 using shunting, discharge or bypass circuits

Abstract

A battery rack includes: a plurality of battery packs; a plurality of slave battery management systems, each of the slave battery management systems being coupled to a corresponding one of the battery packs, being powered by an operating power, and being configured to use the corresponding one of the battery packs for the operating power in response to receiving a corresponding one of a plurality of operating power changing signals; and a master battery management system coupled to the slave battery management systems and configured to transmit the operating power changing signals to the slave battery management systems.

Claims

1. A battery rack comprising:

a plurality of battery packs;

a plurality of slave battery management systems, each of the slave battery management systems being coupled to a corresponding one of the battery packs, being powered by an operating power, and being configured to use the corresponding one of the battery packs for the operating power in response to receiving a corresponding one of a plurality of operating power changing signals; and

a master battery management system coupled to the slave battery management systems and configured to transmit the operating power changing signals to the slave battery management systems.

2. The battery rack of claim 1, wherein the slave battery management systems are configured to measure information related to charging parameters of the battery packs and to transmit the measured information to the master battery management system.

3. The battery rack of claim 1, wherein the master battery management system is configured to selectively transmit the operating power changing signals according to comparison results of states of charge or of voltages of the battery packs.

4. The battery rack of claim 3,

wherein the master battery management system is configured to transmit the corresponding one of the operating power changing signals to a slave battery management system of the slave battery management systems coupled to a battery pack of the battery packs having a relatively high state of charge or a relatively high voltage as determined by the comparison results.

5. The battery rack of claim 4, wherein the battery pack having the relatively high state of charge or the relatively high voltage has a state of charge or a voltage higher than a state of charge or a voltage of another battery pack of the plurality of battery packs by more than a threshold state of charge or a threshold voltage.

6. The battery rack of claim 1, wherein each of the slave battery management systems is configured to selectively change a power source for the operating power between an external power source and the corresponding one of the battery packs in response to receiving the corresponding one of the operating power changing signals.

7. The battery rack of claim 6, wherein each of the slave battery management systems comprises a switch unit configured to select one of the external power source or the corresponding one of the battery packs as the power source for the operating power.

8. The battery rack of claim 7,

wherein the switch unit comprises a first relay and a second relay, and

wherein the switch unit is configured to select one of the corresponding one of the battery packs or the external power source using the first relay or the second relay, respectively.

9. The battery rack of claim 8,

wherein each of the plurality of slave battery management systems comprises a voltage converter coupled between the corresponding one of the battery packs and the second relay, and

wherein the voltage converter is configured to convert a voltage received from the corresponding one of the plurality of battery packs to correspond to the operating power of the slave battery management system.

10. The battery rack of claim 1,

wherein the corresponding one of the battery packs comprises a plurality of battery cells, and

wherein each of the slave battery management systems is configured to receive one of a plurality of cell balancing signals from the master battery management system and to perform a cell balancing operation on the battery cells in response to the cell balancing signal.

11. A method of operating a battery rack, the method comprising:

selectively transmitting a plurality of operating power changing signals from a master battery management system;

receiving each of the transmitted operating power changing signals at a corresponding one of a plurality of slave battery management systems, each of the slave battery management systems being powered by an operating power source and being coupled to the master battery management system; and

using, as the operating power source, a corresponding one of a plurality of battery packs by the corresponding one of the slave battery management systems that receives the transmitted operating power changing signal.

12. The method of operating the battery rack of claim 11, further comprising:

measuring battery pack information related to charging parameters of the battery packs by the plurality of slave battery management systems; and

transmitting the measured battery pack information to the master battery management system.

13. The method of operating the battery rack of claim 11, wherein the selectively transmitting occurs according to comparison results of states of charge or of voltages of the battery packs.

14. The method of operating the battery rack of claim 13, wherein the selectively transmitting comprises transmitting the operating power changing signals to slave battery management systems that are coupled to battery packs having relatively high states of charge or relatively high voltages as determined by the comparison results.

15. The method of operating the battery rack of claim 14, wherein the battery pack having the relatively high state of charge or the relatively high voltage has a state of charge or a voltage higher than a state of charge or a voltage of another battery pack of the plurality of battery packs by more than a threshold state of charge or a threshold voltage.

16. The method of operating the battery rack of claim 11, wherein the using the corresponding one of the battery packs as the operating power source comprises selectively changing the operating power source between an external power source and the corresponding one of the battery packs in response to the corresponding one of the slave battery management systems receiving the transmitted operating power changing signal.

17. The method of operating the battery rack of claim 16, wherein the selectively changing the operating power source comprises operating a corresponding switch unit configured to select one of the external power source or the corresponding one of the plurality of battery packs as the operating power source.

18. The method of operating the battery rack of claim 17, wherein the operating the corresponding switch unit comprises driving a first relay or a second relay to select the corresponding one of the battery packs or the external power source, respectively.

19. The method of operating the battery rack of claim 18, further comprising converting a voltage received from the external power source or the corresponding one of the battery packs to an operating voltage of the slave battery management systems.

20. The method of operating the battery rack of claim 11, further comprising:

selectively sending a plurality of cell balancing signals from the master battery management system;

receiving a corresponding one of the sent cell balancing signals at a cell balancing slave battery management system of the plurality of slave battery management systems coupled to a corresponding cell balancing battery pack of the plurality of battery packs; and

selectively performing a cell balancing operation on a plurality of battery cells in the cell balancing battery pack in response to receiving the cell balancing signal at the cell balancing slave battery management system.