Battery Management Circuit

摘要

A battery management circuit maintains voltage balance during charging and discharging of a multi-cell, series connected battery stack. The circuit allows the entire energy content of the battery stack to be drained, as opposed to just monitoring the cells and turning off the discharge when the first cell voltage drops below a predetermined threshold. The circuit also provides high efficiency voltage balancing during charging of the battery stack conserving energy and keeping the temperature of the battery pack to a minimum.

主权项

1. A battery management circuit, comprising:
a plurality of cell connections whereby a corresponding plurality of battery sections are connectable in series between a load output and ground such that the positive terminal of each battery section in the series is connected to the negative terminal of the subsequent battery section in the series, except that the negative terminal of the first battery in the series is connected to ground and that the positive terminal of the last section is connected to the load output; balancing circuitry connected across a plurality N of the cell connections whereby, when a corresponding plurality of battery sections are connected thereto to drive a load connected at the load output and when activated, the balancing circuitry uses one or more stronger ones of the batteries to provide a supplemental current across the connections of one or more weaker ones of the batteries; and a controller circuit connected to the cell connections to monitor the charge level of batteries connected thereto and connected to the balancing circuitry to activate the balancing circuitry in response to detecting one or more of the batteries being discharged below a first level.