Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090079391 | Systems and methods for cell balancing - A cell balancing circuit comprises a first cell having a first voltage, a second cell in series with the first cell and having a second voltage that is greater than the first voltage, and a bypass path in parallel with the second cell for enabling a bypass current for the second cell if a difference between the first voltage and the second voltage is greater than a predetermined threshold. The bypass current is enabled for a balancing time period that is proportional to the difference between the fist voltage and the second voltage. | 03-26-2009 |
20090096420 | Systems and methods for cell balancing - A cell balancing circuit comprises a first cell having a first voltage, a second cell in series with the first cell and having a second voltage that is greater than the first voltage, and a bypass path in parallel with the second cell for enabling a bypass current for the second cell if a difference between the first voltage and the second voltage is greater than a predetermined threshold. The bypass current is enabled for a balancing time period that is proportional to the difference between the fist voltage and the second voltage. | 04-16-2009 |
20090278499 | METHOD AND ELECTRONIC CIRCUIT FOR EFFICIENT BATTERY WAKE UP CHARGING - A method for efficiently charging a battery. The method includes producing a first signal having a voltage level dependent on the voltage of the battery comparing the voltage level of the first signal with a settable voltage representative of a maximum battery charging current, and producing a second signal representative of a charging current to be provided to the battery, the second signal having a voltage level selected to be the lower voltage level between the first signal and the settable voltage. | 11-12-2009 |
20100182156 | Protection circuit with timer - A protection circuit includes a detection block, a timer and a protection enable block. The detection block is used to compare a monitoring signal with a reference signal and generate an alert signal if a difference between the monitoring signal and the reference signal exceeds a threshold for a first predetermined duration. The timer coupled to the detection block is used to generate an enabling signal for a second predetermined duration in response to the alert signal. The protection enable block coupled to the timer is used to generate a triggering signal for a first time duration determined by the second predetermined duration in response to the enabling signal so as to perform a protection function. | 07-22-2010 |
20100225275 | CELL BALANCING SYSTEMS EMPLOYING TRANSFORMERS - A cell balancing circuit for balancing battery cells includes a transformer and a switching controller. The transformer has a primary winding and a secondary winding. The switching controller can select a first cell coupled to the primary winding and select a second cell coupled to the secondary winding. The first cell and the second cell are coupled in series. The first cell has a cell voltage that is greater than the second cell. The cell balancing circuit further includes a controller coupled to the primary winding. The controller controls energy from the first cell to the primary winding so as to transfer the energy from the first cell to the second cell to balance the battery cells. | 09-09-2010 |
20100327829 | Monitoring and control circuit for adjusting current - A monitoring and control circuit comprises a sense block, a first and a second comparators, and a control module. The current sense block is coupled to a switch for generating a monitoring signal indicative of a current flowing through the switch. The first comparator coupled to the sense block is operable for comparing the monitoring signal to a first threshold and for providing a first signal according to a first comparison result between the monitoring signal and the first threshold. The second comparator coupled to the sense block is operable for comparing the monitoring signal to a second threshold and for providing a second signal according to a second comparison result between the monitoring signal and the second threshold. The control module coupled to the first comparator and the second comparator provides a control signal for controlling the switch according to the first signal and the second signal so as to adjust the current. | 12-30-2010 |
20110101916 | CHARGING SYSTEMS WITH CELL BALANCING FUNCTIONS - In a power converter, a primary winding receives an input power. In addition, multiple secondary windings transform the input power into multiple charging currents to charge a set of cells via a set of paths. The multiple secondary windings further balance the set of cells based on the charging currents. A ratio between a first turn number of a first secondary winding of the secondary windings and a second turn number of a second secondary winding of the secondary windings is determined by a nominal voltage ratio between two corresponding cells of the set of cells. | 05-05-2011 |
20120038323 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR BALANCING BATTERY CELLS - In a power converter, a primary winding receives an input power. In addition, multiple secondary windings transform the input power into multiple charging currents to charge a set of cells via a set of paths. The multiple secondary windings further balance the set of cells based on the charging currents. A ratio between a first turn number of a first secondary winding of the secondary windings and a second turn number of a second secondary winding of the secondary windings is determined by a nominal voltage ratio between two corresponding cells of the set of cells. | 02-16-2012 |
20120081126 | BATTERY MONITORING SYSTEM WITH A SWITCHING MODE TOPOLOGY - A battery monitoring system for a battery including multiple battery cells is disclosed. The battery monitoring system includes multiple first switch sets coupled across the battery cells respectively, an energy storage element, and a comparator coupled to the energy storage element via a second switch set. The energy storage element samples cell voltages of the battery cells via the first switch sets respectively. The comparator compares a respective cell voltage with a first reference signal to determine whether a fault condition occurs on a respective battery cell. The second switch set and one of the first switch sets are turned on alternately. | 04-05-2012 |
20130019037 | BATTERY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS WITH VERTICAL BUS CIRCUITSAANM Flippin; AllanAACI BrentwoodAAST CAAACO USAAGP Flippin; Allan Brentwood CA USAANM Densham; WilliamAACI Los GatosAAST CAAACO USAAGP Densham; William Los Gatos CA USAANM Goh; Jiun HengAACI SunnyvaleAAST CAAACO USAAGP Goh; Jiun Heng Sunnyvale CA USAANM Bucur; ConstantinAACI SunnyvaleAAST CAAACO USAAGP Bucur; Constantin Sunnyvale CA USAANM Lupu; FlaviusAACI San JoseAAST CAAACO USAAGP Lupu; Flavius San Jose CA USAANM Maireanu; StefanAACI SunnyvaleAAST CAAACO USAAGP Maireanu; Stefan Sunnyvale CA US - A battery management chip may include a battery management unit and a vertical bus circuit. The battery management unit can monitor a cell status of multiple cells in a battery module coupled to the battery management chip in response to an instruction from a host processor. The vertical bus circuit may transfer the instruction from the host processor to the battery management unit. The vertical bus circuit may include a first receiver, a command processor and a first transmitter. The first receiver can receive a first pair of differential input data signals. The command processor can process the first pair of differential input data signals. The first transmitter can output a first pair of differential output data signals. | 01-17-2013 |
20140084871 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR BALANCING BATTERY CELLS - In a power converter, a primary winding receives an input power. In addition, multiple secondary windings transform the input power into multiple charging currents to charge a set of cells via a set of paths. The multiple secondary windings further balance the set of cells based on the charging currents. A ratio between a first turn number of a first secondary winding of the secondary windings and a second turn number of a second secondary winding of the secondary windings is determined by a nominal voltage ratio between two corresponding cells of the set of cells. | 03-27-2014 |