Battery cell voltage and impedance measuring circuit

• US 7,619,390 B2
• Filed: 12/04/2004
• Issued: 11/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Powertron Engineering Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Powertron Engineering Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Kim, Deuk Soo
• Primary Examiner(s): Tso; Edward
• Assistant Examiner(s): BOATENG, ALEXIS ASIEDUA
• Application Number:
  US10/596,102
• Publication Number:
  US 20070090801A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,809 Days
• Field of Search: 320/134, 320/132, 320/135, 320/136.137, 320/148
• US Class Current: 320/134
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/3835 involving only voltage measurements
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/389 Measuring internal impedance, internal conductance or related variables

Abstract

In general, in the circuit to measure and diagnose the cell post voltage and internal impedance in storage battery cells and find out their aging status, the impedance voltage signal which is induced by the constant current is added to the direct current voltage on the storage battery cell post. This invention provides a much better method to discriminate the battery cell voltage 1.0 V-12 V and internal impedance voltage from the various noises on the battery cell post voltage like the induced ripple voltage, and then convert them to digital values by means of a A/D converter, and input the digital signals into a CPU. As a result, it raises the degree of accuracy in measurement of the internal impedance value of the battery.

Claims

1. A circuit for measuring post voltage and internal impedance value of storage battery cells, the circuit comprising:

a differential amplifier having inputs connected to battery terminals (+, −

);

a reference constant voltage circuit connected to offset terminals of the differential amplifier;

a direct current coupling circuit connected to an output of the differential amplifier;

a band pass filter configured to allow only signals having a frequency band near to internal impedance voltage signals to be passed;

a A/D converter for converting analog signals into digital signals, wherein the analog signals include alternating current signals flowing into the battery cells, internal impedance voltage signals obtained from an output of the direct current coupling circuit, and direct current voltage of the battery cells obtained from the output of the differential amplifier; and

a central processing unit (CPU) configured to compute internal impedance values by obtaining output signals of the A/D converter.

2. The circuit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the A/D converter includes multiplexer (MUX) circuits having a plurality of input channels.

3. The circuit as claimed in claim 2, wherein the A/D converter and the CPU comprise a micro controller unit (MCU).

4. The circuit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the band pass filter includes a narrow-band pass filter, dependently connected in two steps, in which input signals are connected to an inverting input terminal of an operational amplifier through a first resistor and a first condenser, and a second condenser is connected between a common connecting point of the resistor and the first condenser, and an output terminal of the operational amplifier.

6. The circuit as claimed in any one of claims 1-3 and 5, wherein the reference constant voltage has two constant voltage diodes, a current limiting resistor in a serial connection, and an offset reference voltage at an offset terminal of the differential amplifier, the offset reference voltage being configured to be slightly varied by a variable resistor connected to the constant voltage diodes.

9. The circuit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the A/D converter is equivalent to an AD7891 able to convert analog signals of about ±

10V into 12 bit digital signals.

10. The circuit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the differential amplifier comprises a differential operational amplifier element having a very high input impedance comprising resistors having resistance values in hundreds of kilo ohm (KΩ

), respectively connected to inverting and non-inverting input circuits of the differential amplifier, and an offset terminal applied with negative constant voltage.

5. A circuit for measuring post voltage and internal impedance voltage storage battery cells, wherein:

(i) storage batter cell terminal voltages are connected to non-inverting and inverting input terminals of a high input common mode voltage differential amplifier, negative constant voltages generated by a reference constant voltage circuit are connected to an offset terminal of the differential amplifier, an output of the differential amplifier is converted to A/D values through a DC filter circuit for eliminating noise, and

(ii) an output of the differential amplifier is convened into impedance voltage signals after passing a direct current coupling circuit, and then the impedance voltage signals is converted into A/D values after passing through a band pass filter.

7. The circuit as claimed in claim 5, wherein the high input common mode voltage differential amplifier comprises a very high input impedance, wherein hundreds of kilo ohm (KΩ

) resistors are connected to the inverting and non-inverting input circuits of the differential amplifier and;

the reference constant voltage circuit is connected to the offset terminal of the differential amplifier.

8. A circuit for measuring post voltage and internal impedance value in storage battery cells, wherein:

(i) analog signals are connected to multiplexer circuit input channels of an analog to digital converter circuit (ADC),

(ii) said analog signals are input to ADC circuit by channel select signals from a CPU output, and

(iii) and said analog signals comprise;

direct current voltage signals of storage battery cells received as an output of a high input common mode voltage differential amplifier;

internal impedance voltage signals obtained from a direct current coupling circuit connected to the output of the high input common mode voltage differential amplifier; and

alternating current signals flowing into the storage battery cells.