4541 results about "Discharge current" patented technology

A state of charge indicator includes a current sensing circuit for sensing and converting charge or discharge current of a battery into a bipolar voltage. A counter circuit counts battery charge. A charge / discharge circuit is operatively connected to the current sensing and counter circuits and detects the voltage polarity from the current sensing circuit and sets the counter circuit to a count mode with an up or down count for a respective charge or discharge. A reset circuit is operative with the current sensing circuit, counter circuit and charge / discharge circuit for resetting the counter circuit to an actual state-of-charge of the battery after delay when the battery is idle representative of a battery open circuit voltage.

A processing apparatus includes a processing vessel; a susceptor installed in the processing vessel and having an electrostatic chuck for attracting and holding an object to be processed; lifter pins, elevatably installed with respect to the susceptor, for separating the object from the susceptor; and a jump-up detection device for detecting whether or not the object jumps up from the susceptor when the object is lifted up to be separated therefrom by the lifter pins, wherein the jump-up detection device has a discharge detection unit for detecting at least one of a discharge current and a discharge voltage generated between the object and the susceptor when the object is separated from the susceptor; and a judging unit for judging whether or not the object jumps up based on a detection result of the discharge detection unit.

A rechargeable, stackable, thin film, solid-state lithium electrochemical cell, thin film lithium battery and method for making the same is disclosed. The cell and battery provide for a variety configurations, voltage and current capacities. An innovative low temperature ion beam assisted deposition method for fabricating thin film, solid-state anodes, cathodes and electrolytes is disclosed wherein a source of energetic ions and evaporants combine to form thin film cell components having preferred crystallinity, structure and orientation. The disclosed batteries are particularly useful as power sources for portable electronic devices and electric vehicle applications where high energy density, high reversible charge capacity, high discharge current and long battery lifetimes are required.

A dynamic memory circuit in which the inherent bipolar transistor effect within a floating body transistor is utilized to store an information bit. A floating body of a storage transistor stores an information bit in the form of an electric charge. The floating body is charged and discharged via an access transistor during data write operations. The inherent bipolar transistor resident within the floating body transistor increases the effective capacitance of the floating body which acts as the storage node, and thereby enhances the magnitude of the discharge current which represents the stored information bit during read operations.

An RF ICP source having a housing with a flanged cover. The interior of the housing serves for confining plasma generated by the plasma source. The cover has at least two openings which are connected by a hollow C-shaped bridge portion which is located outside the housing. The hollow C-shaped bridge portion is embraced by an annular ferrite core having a winding connected to an electric power supply source for generating a discharge current which flows through the bridge portion and through the interior of the housing. The discharge current is sufficient for inducing plasma in the interior of the housing which is supplied with a gaseous working medium. The power source operates on a relatively low frequency of 60 KHz or higher and has a power from several watt to several kilowatt. In order to provide a uniform plasma distribution and uniform plasma treatment, the cover may support a plurality of bridges. Individual control of the inductors on each bridge allows for plasma redistributing. The housing of the working chamber can be divided into two section for simultaneous treatment of two objects such as semiconductor substrates. A plate that divides the working chamber into two sections may have ferrite cores built into the plate around the bridges. In another embodiment, the flow of gaseous working medium is supplied via a tube connected to the bridge portion of the source.

Edge rates for output driver transistors are increased for slower conditions such as caused by supply-voltage, temperature, and process variations. The edge rates are increased by increasing charging and discharging currents to the gates of the driver transistors. Process-sensing transistors have gates tied to power or ground. Current through the process-sensing transistors changes with supply-voltage, temperature, and process variations. The currents through process-sensing transistors are used to generate process-compensated voltages that bias current sources and sinks to adjust process-dependent currents. Process-independent or fixed current sources and sinks use process-independent reference voltages ultimately generated from reference currents that are not sensitive to process variations. The process-dependent-currents are subtracted from the fixed currents to produce the charging and discharging currents.

A voltage-waveform detector produces a voltage-feedback signal and a discharge-time signal by multi-sampling a voltage signal of a transformer. The discharge-time signal represents a discharge time of a secondary-side switching current. A voltage-loop error amplifier amplifies the voltage-feedback signal and generates a control signal. An off-time modulator correspondingly generates a discharge-current signal and a standby signal in response to the control signal and an under-voltage signal. The under-voltage signal indicates a low supply voltage of the controller. An oscillator produces a pulse signal in response to the discharge-current signal. The pulse signal determines the off-time of the switching signal. A PWM circuit generates the switching signal in response to the pulse signal and the standby signal. The standby signal further controls the off-time of the switching signal and maintains a minimum switching frequency. The switching signal is used for regulating the output of the power supply.

The present invention relates to cathodes used in electrochemical cells. A force, or forces, applied to portions of an electrochemical cell as described in this application can reduce irregularity or roughening of an electrode surface of the cell, improving performance. The cathodes described herein may possess enhanced properties that render them particularly suitable for use in electrochemical cells designed to be charged and / or discharged while a force is applied. In some embodiments, the cathode retains sufficient porosity to charge and discharge effectively when a force is applied to the cell. Cathodes described herein may also comprise relatively high electrolyte-accessible conductive material (e.g., carbon) areas. The cathode may comprise a relatively low ratio of the amount of binder and / or mass of electrolyte to cathode active material (e.g., sulfur) ratio in some instances. In some embodiments, electrochemical cells comprising the cathodes described herein may achieve relatively high specific capacities and / or relatively high discharge current densities. In addition, the cathode described herein may exhibit relatively high cathode active material (e.g., sulfur) utilization during charge and discharge. In still further cases, the electrical conductivity between conductive material in the cathode (e.g., carbon) may be enhanced during the application of the force.

A voltage-waveform detector produces a voltage-feedback signal and a discharge-time signal by multi-sampling a voltage signal of a transformer. The discharge-time signal represents a discharge time of a secondary-side switching current. A voltage-loop error amplifier amplifies the voltage-feedback signal and generates a control signal. An off-time modulator correspondingly generates a discharge-current signal and a standby signal in response to the control signal and an under-voltage signal. The under-voltage signal indicates a low supply voltage of the controller. An oscillator produces a pulse signal in response to the discharge-current signal. The pulse signal determines the off-time of the switching signal. A PWM circuit generates the switching signal in response to the pulse signal and the standby signal. The standby signal further controls the off-time of the switching signal and maintains a minimum switching frequency. The switching signal is used for regulating the output of the power supply.

The invention discloses a battery managing system (BMS) testing platform comprising a testing platform main control computer, a high-precision cell voltage simulator, a high-precision large-current constant-current source, a high-precision thermotank, a battery managing system to be tested, a whole vehicle controller simulator and the like which are connected by CAN buses. The battery managing system is connected with a cell box air cooling device, a vehicle relay assembly and the like. The battery managing system testing platform can truly simulate the output state of a battery, comprising single cell voltage, total voltage, charging and discharging current, temperature and the like of the battery, can complete various communication and command functions, protection functions, battery heavy current applying process between the battery managing system and the whole vehicle, and the test and the verification on the functions of overhead protection and the like of the battery. The invention can carry out testing evaluation on the data collection precision of the battery managing system, the evaluation precision of the charge state of the battery and the like.

A discharge prevention circuit and electronic equipment with the discharge prevention circuit are provided. The discharging prevention circuit includes a first power line, a second power line, a capacitor, a current detector and a switch. The first and second power lines directly or indirectly connect a power feed line to a load. The capacitor and the current detector are directly or indirectly connected in series between the first and second power lines. The switch is disposed in the first or second power line. The current detector detects at least charging current to the capacitor and discharging current from the capacitor. And if the current detector detects discharging current from the capacitor, the switch acts to stop current flow between the capacitor and the power feed line through the switch.

The present invention discloses a PFC-PWM controller having interleaved switching. A PFC stage generates a PFC signal for switching a PFC boost converter of a power converter. A PWM stage generates a PWM signal for switching a DC-to-DC converter of the power converter. The PFC-PWM controller includes a power manager for generating a discharge current and a burst-signal. Under light-load conditions, the discharge current decreases in proportion to a load of the power converter. The burst signal is utilized to disable the PFC signal in a suspended condition for power saving. A pulse width of the pulse-signal ensures a dead time to spread switching signals, such as the PFC and PWM signals, and reduces switching noise. When the discharge current decreases, the pulse width of the pulse-signal will increase and a frequency of the pulse-signal will decrease correspondingly. This further reduces power consumption under light-load and zero-load conditions.

A method and apparatus is provided for determining how a vehicle battery would perform when used to start a vehicle. A discharge voltage / current of the battery is predicted as a function of a battery dynamic parameter, an open circuit voltage of the battery, a battery temperature and a fixed current / voltage value at which the battery is to be discharged. This discharge voltage / current value is compared to a minimum starting voltage / current required to start the vehicle in which the battery is employed and an output indicative of a starting capability of the battery is provided.

A method and apparatus for predicting the remaining discharge time of a battery are provided. The method includes measuring a dynamic parameter of the battery, obtaining a discharge current of the battery, measuring a voltage of the battery and obtaining a temperature of the battery. The remaining run time of the battery is predicted as a function of the measured battery dynamic parameter, the discharge current, the measured battery voltage, the battery temperature, a full charge battery dynamic parameter and an estimated capacity of the battery.

The invention discloses a method for predicting the left capacity and the health status of a storage battery. According to the invention, predicting the left capacity of the battery based on an ampere hour integration method and an open-circuit voltage method is realized, an adjustment is carried out based on discharge currents and ambient temperature, a self correction is carried out in a process of continuous driving and influences from cell agedness on electric capacity prediction are corrected. Based on the working characteristic of a vehicle cell, a cell failure determination mode based on a combination of open-circuit voltage and ampere hour integration is put forward and the trouble of carrying out a check discharge test towards the cell is avoided. Experiments show that in the case of vehicle power storage battery which is not at a float status in a long term, the capacity obtained from the method has a high reliability. The invention is directed to the social background that motor-assisted bicycles are frequently used at present while most users know little about the cell status and has great application significances.

A method for determining deterioration of accumulator battery hooked up with loads in a system based on results of measuring internal resistances of an accumulator battery, the method comprising the steps of; predetermining as a specified temperature a temperature at which the deterioration of the accumulator battery is determined; calculating in advance temperature correction coefficients of the internal resistances from changes of the internal resistances depending on temperatures; predetermining resistance-voltage conversion factors to convert between the internal resistances at the specified temperature and terminal discharge voltages of the accumulator battery which are obtained at the specified temperature under a condition of flowing predetermined discharge currents from the accumulator battery; measuring the internal resistances of the accumulator battery and temperature of the accumulator battery at an internal resistance measurement; converting the measured internal resistance values into the internal resistance values at the specified temperature with use of the temperature correction coefficients of the internal resistances; converting the internal resistance values at the specified temperature into the terminal discharge voltage values of the accumulator battery at the specified temperature with use of the resistance-voltage conversion factors; and determining whether the accumulator battery is deteriorated or not by means of comparison of the terminal discharge voltage values of the accumulator battery at the specified temperature and a predetermined threshold value as a deterioration judgment standard.

The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for estimating discharge and charge power of battery applications, including battery packs used in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV) and Electric Vehicles (EV). One charge / discharge power estimating method incorporates voltage, state-of-charge (SOC), power, and current design constraints and works for a user-specified prediction time horizon Δt. At least two cell models are used in calculating maximum charge / discharge power based on voltage limits. The first is a simple cell model that uses a Taylor-series expansion to linearize the equation involved. The second is a more complex and accurate model that models cell dynamics in discrete-time state-space form. The cell model can incorporate a inputs such as temperature, resistance, capacity, etc. One advantage of using model-based approach is that the same model may be used in both Kalman-filtering to produce the SOC and the estimation of maximum charge / discharge current based on voltage limits.

A protection circuit is provided for protecting a secondary battery from overcharging and excessive discharge current by a simple circuit. The protection circuit is provided with a connection terminal (T3) for connecting the secondary battery (6); a connection terminal (T1) for connecting a charging device for charging the secondary battery (6) and / or a load device driven by a discharge current from the secondary battery (6); a bimetal switch (SW1) that is provided between the connection terminals (T1, T3) and turned off in the case of exceeding a specified temperature set beforehand; a heater (R2) for heating the bimetal switch (SW1); and an integrated circuit (IC1) for turning the bimetal switch (SW1) off by causing the heater (R2) to generate heat if a voltage applied to the connection terminal (T3) by the secondary battery (6) exceeds a preset reference voltage.

The method of controlling battery current limiting controls maximum charging and discharging current values according to the state of charge of the battery. The method of controlling current limiting integrates battery charging and discharging current to compute a first state of charge, determines first charging and discharging current limit value candidates from that first state of charge, computes a second state of charge based on battery voltage, and determines second charging and discharging current limit value candidates from that second state of charge. Further, the method takes the smaller of the first and second charging and discharging current limit value candidates as the charging and discharging current limit values for charging and discharging the battery.

A balancing method for a battery pack includes balancing battery cells near an end of discharge. A deep discharge of the battery cells can be prevented without using an overdischarge control unit. One battery cell balancing method includes: a balancing check condition determination step for determining whether or not a maximum voltage out of voltages of the battery cells is smaller than a reference voltage; a balancing start condition determination step for determining whether or not a residual capacity difference or voltage difference between the individual battery cells exceeds a reference value; a balancing time calculation step for calculating a balancing time for discharging the battery cell that exceeds the reference value; and a balancing operation step for discharging the selected battery cell when the battery cells are under charge or are at rest or when a discharge current of the battery cells is smaller than a reference current.

The battery system is provided with a battery 1 that can be recharged, a fuse 8 connected to the battery 1 that blows with excessive current flow, relays 2 connected to the output-side of the battery 1, and a current cut-off circuit 4 that detects excessive battery 1 current and controls the relays 2. The current cut-off circuit 4 detects excessive battery 1 current, and is provided with a timer section 24 that designates a time delay until the relays 2 are switched from ON to OFF. For the delay time of the timer section 24, the fusing current of the fuse 8 is set lower than the maximum cut-off current of the relays 2 and higher than the maximum allowable battery 1 charging and discharging current. In a situation where excessive current greater than the maximum cut-off current of the relays 2 flows through the battery 1, the fuse 8 is blown during the timer 24 delay time, and the current cut-off circuit 4 switches the relays 2 from ON to OFF when the delay time has elapsed.

The present invention discloses a PFC-PWM controller having interleaved switching. A PFC stage generates a PFC signal for switching a PFC boost converter of a power converter. A PWM stage generates a PWM signal for switching a DC-to-DC converter of the power converter. The PFC-PWM controller includes a power manager for generating a discharge current and a burst-signal. Under light-load conditions, the discharge current decreases in proportion to a load of the power converter. The burst signal is utilized to disable the PFC signal in a suspended condition for power saving. A pulse width of the pulse-signal ensures a dead time to spread switching signals, such as the PFC and PWM signals, and reduces switching noise. When the discharge current decreases, the pulse width of the pulse-signal will increase and a frequency of the pulse-signal will decrease correspondingly. This further reduces power consumption under light-load and zero-load conditions.

A battery management system using a measurement model modeling a battery, and estimating a SOC (state-of-charge) of the battery, and a battery driving method thereof. The battery management system is constructed with a sensor, a predictor, a data rejection unit, and a measurement unit. The sensor senses a charging and discharging current flowing through the battery, a temperature of the battery, a terminal voltage of the battery. The predictor counts the charging and discharging current, and estimates the state-of-charge of the battery. The data rejection unit generates information associated with an error generated from the measurement model, as a function of at least one of the battery temperature, the charging and discharging current, the state-of-charge, and a dynamic of the charging and discharging current. The measurement unit corrects the estimated state-of-charge of the battery, using the measurement model and the information associated with the error.

The method of controlling rechargeable battery power is a method that includes limiting the amount of usable power during rechargeable battery charging and discharging, determining a rechargeable battery current-voltage characteristic function based on rechargeable battery charging and discharging current flow and voltage, finding a limiting discharging current Imax and / or a limiting charging current Imin from a prescribed minimum voltage Vmin to prevent over-discharging and / or a prescribed maximum voltage Vmax to prevent over-charging and their intersection with the current-voltage characteristic function, and controlling current such that discharging current greater than or equal to Imax and / or charging current less than or equal to Imin does not flow through the rechargeable batteries. In this fashion, the amount of usable power can be limited considering factors such as the memory effect, and the rechargeable battery can be used to its maximum capability within the range of safe operation.

Lower order control devices control plural battery cells configuring plural battery modules. An input terminal of the low order control device in the highest potential, an output terminal of the low order control device in the lowest potential, and a high order control device are connected by isolating units, photocouplers. Diodes which prevent a discharge current of the battery cells in the battery modules are disposed between the output terminal of the low order control device and the battery cells in the battery module on the low potential side. Terminals related to input / output of a signal are electrically connected without isolating among the plural low order control devices.

The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for estimating discharge and charge power of battery applications, including battery packs used in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV) and Electric Vehicles (EV). One charge / discharge power estimating method incorporates voltage, state-of-charge (SOC), power, and current design constraints and works for a user-specified prediction time horizon Δt. At least two cell models are used in calculating maximum charge / discharge power based on voltage limits. The first is a simple cell model that uses a Taylor-series expansion to linearize the equation involved. The second is a more complex and accurate model that models cell dynamics in discrete-time state-space form. The cell model can incorporate a inputs such as temperature, resistance, capacity, etc. One advantage of using model-based approach is that the same model may be used in both Kalman-filtering to produce the SOC and the estimation of maximum charge / discharge current based on voltage limits.

The invention discloses a lithium ion battery internal temperature monitoring method. The monitoring method includes the following steps that a charge-discharge tester is used for carrying out charge-discharge tests on a lithium ion battery on different environment conditions to obtain a battery surface temperature change curve; related parameters such as battery internal resistance and an open-circuit voltage temperature coefficient are tested, and a lithium ion battery electric heating coupling model based on a variable heat production rate is set up; the temperature rise change of the discharge process of the battery is simulated to obtain a temperature change simulation curve; the experiment test temperature change curve and the simulation curve are analyzed and compared to optimize and verify the electric heating coupling model; the influence between the battery internal temperature and the battery surface temperature as well as the influence between the discharge currents and the discharge depth are analyzed, and a lithium ion battery internal temperature model is constructed; the battery internal temperature is monitored in real time according to the model. The lithium ion battery internal temperature monitoring method is simple and easy to implement, small in estimation error and capable of well meeting the requirement for monitoring the battery internal temperature in real time.

Lower order control devices control plural battery cells configuring plural battery modules. An input terminal of the low order control device in the highest potential, an output terminal of the low order control device in the lowest potential, and a high order control device are connected by isolating units, photocouplers. Diodes which prevent a discharge current of the battery cells in the battery modules are disposed between the output terminal of the low order control device and the battery cells in the battery module on the low potential side. Terminals related to input / output of a signal are electrically connected without isolating among the plural low order control devices.

This invention provides a battery pack for driving a compact electric motor of a compact engine starting device mounted on a working machine, comprising lithium-based secondary battery comprising two cells, the entire discharge capacity of the cells being 500 to 2000 mAh, charging voltage per one cell being 3.0 to 4.2 V, various electronic circuits like driving and battery protection circuits of an electric motor, maximum discharge current of the battery having high rate of 10 to 60 A, the protection circuit including an overdischarge inhibit circuit (A) interposed in the electric motor driving circuit and automatically stopping the driving operation of the electric motor after time required for starting the engine elapsed, the volume of the battery pack being as extremely low as 2.5×104 to 1.0×105 mm3, the tire required until the engine is started from the actuation of the electric motor being set to an interval as short as 5 to 15 seconds, since high current can flow.

A battery ECU estimates the SOC by integrating the battery current measured by a current sensor, and the battery voltage Vn is measured by a voltage sensor and the battery temperature Tn is measured by a thermometer if the fluctuation of the charging / discharging current is great. If the number m of estimations of SOCn is m<10, m is incremented. The battery internal resistance Rn is estimated from the measured battery temperature Tn by using a correlation map showing the correlation between the previously stored battery temperature T and the battery internal resistance R. An estimation charging / discharging current In is determined using the measured battery voltage Vn, the battery open voltage Vocvn−1 determined on the basis of the previously estimated charged state, and the estimated battery internal resistance Rn. The SOCn is estimated by integrating the estimated charging / discharging current In. If the number m of estimations of the SOCn is m=10, the number m of estimations is changed to 0. The charging / discharging current in is measured by a current sensor. The battery internal resistance Rn is calculated from the battery voltage Vn and the charging / discharging current in. The battery temperature Tn is also measured, and the T-R correlation map is corrected.