CONTINUOUS CIRCUIT AND FUSE PROTECTION IN HIGH VOLTAGE APPLICATIONS EXPOSED TO CHEMICALLY HARSH ENVIRONMENTS

摘要

A battery pack, a device for sensing individual battery voltages in a battery pack and protecting the battery pack in the event of a circuit-breaking event, and a method for forming an encapsulant for the voltage-sensing circuit for use in a battery-powered automobile propulsion system. The battery pack includes numerous voltage sensing circuits with surface-mounted fuses and an encapsulant formed around each of the fuses. The encapsulant is robust enough to provide environmental isolation of the surface-mounted fuse such that the tendency of the fuse to form short-circuit connections to adjacent circuits is avoided under both normal battery pack operation and after a condition where the battery pack is compromised. The precursor to the encapsulant is made from a multiple layers of a traditional thin coating material or a single layer of a high-viscosity fluid to help maintain a minimum coating thickness around all exposed portions of the surface-mounted fuse, including the breech-prone corners.

主权项

1. A voltage monitoring assembly cooperative with at least one battery cell to be monitored within a battery pack, said assembly comprising:
a substrate with at least one voltage-sensing circuit disposed thereon, said voltage-sensing circuit comprising a surface-mounted fuse and a voltage trace electrically coupled thereto such that upon cooperation with said at least one battery cell, said voltage-sensing circuit provides indicia of an electrical condition of said at least one battery cell; and at least one layer of a environmentally resistant conformal encapsulant formed around said fuse, said encapsulant defining an as-deposited thixotropic fluid precursor that has been cured into an material such that said fuse remains isolated from the ambient environment during both normal battery pack operation and after said battery pack is compromised.