Battery management system and driving method for the same

• US 8,315,828 B2
• Filed: 04/20/2010
• Issued: 11/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH, Samsung SDI Company Limited
• Original Assignee: SB LiMotive Co. Ltd (Samsung SDI Company Limited)
• Inventors: Tae, Yongjun
• Primary Examiner(s): Kundu, Sujoy
• Assistant Examiner(s): Zhang, Haidong
• Application Number:
  US12/662,482
• Publication Number:
  US 20100268493A1
• Time in Patent Office: 945 Days
• Field of Search: 702/63, 320/134
• US Class Current: 702/63
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/3835 involving only voltage 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: H01M 10/482 for several batteries or cells simultaneously or sequentially
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 Energy storage using batteries

Abstract

Disclosed are a battery management system that uses a source file for sensing of the cell voltages of battery cells by changing only declaration information of a header file using an MCU even when the number of battery cells is changed, and a driving method for the same. The battery management system is connected to a battery including at least one battery pack in which a plurality of battery cells are contained. includes a sensor including an AD converter connected to the battery cells, the sensor configured to sense cell voltages of the battery cells, a storage configured to store source data generated using an input external signal, and a controller configured to generate a source signal corresponding to the source data and forward the source signal to the sensor, the sensor being configured to sense the cell voltages of the battery cells according to the source signal.

Claims

1. A battery management system to be connected to a battery including at least one battery pack in which a plurality of battery cells are contained, the system comprising:

a sensor including an analog-to-digital (AD) converter connected to the battery cells, the sensor configured to sense cell voltages of the battery cells;

a storage configured to store source data obtained from an external signal, the storage including a header file loaded by the controller, the header file being configured to store the external signal, and a source file that obtains the source data from the external signal; and

a controller configured to generate a source signal corresponding to the source data and forward the source signal to the sensor, the sensor being configured to sense the cell voltages of the battery cells in accordance with the source signal, wherein;

the external signal includes a total number of battery cells and a basic number of battery cells allocated to each channel of the AD converter, and

the source file is programmed such that when there is a difference between a number of battery cells obtained by multiplying a number of channels of the AD converter by the basic number of battery cells allocated to each channel of the AD converter in the header file and the total number of battery cells in the header file, the source file sequentially allocates the battery cells corresponding to the difference to corresponding channels of the AD converter.

2. The battery management system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the source data includes the basic number of battery cells allocated to each channel of the AD converter and a cell voltage sensing time of all the battery cells.

3. The battery management system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the number of channels of the AD converter is set in the source file in advance.

4. The battery management system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the source file is programmed to obtain a cell voltage sensing time of all the battery cells by adding the time obtained by multiplying the number of battery cells basically allocated to each channel of the AD converter by a voltage sensing time for one battery cell corresponding to each channel of the AD converter to a cell voltage sensing time for a number of battery cells corresponding to the difference.

5. The battery management system as claimed in claim 4, wherein the voltage sensing time for one battery cell corresponding to each channel of the AD converter is set in the source file in advance.

6. The battery management system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the sensor further includes a control signal generator configured to generate a control signal for sensing of the cell voltages of the battery cells from the source signal.

7. The battery management system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the storage is an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM).

8. The battery management system as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

the sensor is configured to sense a pack current and a pack voltage of the battery pack, and

the controller is configured to estimate a state of charge (SOC) using the pack current, the pack voltage, and the cell voltages.

9. A driving method for a battery management system connected to a battery including at least one battery pack in which a plurality of battery cells are contained, the method comprising:

loading a header file from a storage by a controller connected to a sensor, the sensor including an analog-to-digital (AD) converter connected to the battery cells;

inputting to the header file an external signal corresponding to information of the loaded header file, the inputting being carried out by the controller, the external signal including a total number of battery cells and a basic number of battery cells allocated to each channel of the analog-to-digital convert and

generating a source signal corresponding to source data created from the external signal input to the header file using a program stored in a source file of the storage by the generating being carried out by the controller, wherein, generating the source signal is carried out such that when there is a difference between the number of battery cells obtained by multiplying a number of channels of the AD converter by the basic number of battery cells allocated to each channel of the AD converter in the header file and the total number of all battery cells in the header file, generating the source signal includes sequentially allocating the battery cells corresponding to the difference to each channel of the AD converter, and

wherein the sensor senses the cell voltages of the battery cells according to the source signal.

10. The driving method as claimed in claim 9, wherein the source data includes the basic number of battery cells allocated to each channel of the AD converter and a cell voltage sensing time for all the battery cells.

11. The driving method as claimed in claim 9, wherein the number of channels of the AD converter is set in the source file in advance.

12. The driving method as claimed in claim 9, wherein the source file isprogrammed to obtain a cell voltage sensing time of all the battery cells by adding the time obtained by multiplying the basic number of battery cells allocated to each channel of the AD converter by a voltage sensing time for one battery cell corresponding to each channel of the AD converter to a cell voltage sensing time for a number of battery cells corresponding to the difference.

13. The driving method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the voltage sensing time for one battery cell corresponding to each channel of AD converter is set in the source file in advance.

14. An article of manufacture having a non-transitory machine accessible medium including data that, when accessed by a machine, cause the machine to perform a method for driving a battery management system, the method comprising:

loading a header file from a storage by a controller connected to a sensor, the sensor including an analog-to-digital converter connected to the battery cells;

inputting to the header file an external signal corresponding to information of the header file, the inputting being carried out by the controller, the external signal including a total number of battery cells and a basic number of battery cells allocated to each channel of the digital analog-to-digital converter; and

generating a source signal corresponding to source data created from external signal input to the header file using a program stored in a source file of the storage, the generating being carried out by the controller, wherein, when there is a difference between the number of battery cells obtained by multipying a number of channels by the AD converter by the basic number of battery cells allocated to each channel of the AD converter in the header file and the total number of all battery cells in the header file, generating the source signal includes sequentially allocating the battery cells corresponding to the difference to each channel of the AD converter, and

wherein the sensor senses cell voltages of the battery cells according to the source signal.