Battery Cell Balancing with Defective Cell Exclusion Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Batteries with multiple cells experience voltage deviations due to defective cells, leading to voltage imbalance and frequent cell balancing, which reduces their effective use and lifespan, with existing technologies failing to detect and address defective cells early in the battery's life.
Innovation Solution
A battery control apparatus and method that includes sensors to monitor cell voltages, identifies defective cells, sets them as exclusion cells, performs imbalance determination, and adjusts charge/discharge currents based on cell health, excluding the defective cells from balancing operations and providing alarms for inspection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If cell balancing is repeatedly performed due to voltage imbalance caused by defective battery cells, then voltage balance is maintained, but battery usage time is reduced and productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and isolates defective battery cells from the balancing operation by identifying cells with abnormal voltage characteristics and excluding them from the balancing process. This allows the remaining healthy cells to be balanced without being repeatedly affected by defective cells, thereby maintaining voltage balance while extending battery usage time.
2Device complexity
If defective battery cells are not detected early, then manufacturing complexity is reduced, but reliability deteriorates due to voltage imbalance and reduced use capacity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary detection of defective battery cells by monitoring voltage characteristics during charging and discharging operations. By detecting voltage deviations and identifying defective cells early in the battery's operational life, the system prevents voltage imbalance and capacity reduction before they significantly impact battery performance, thereby maintaining reliability without requiring complex additional hardware.
3Device complexity
If voltage deviation between battery cells is not monitored, then device complexity is reduced, but manufacturing precision deteriorates due to undetected defective cells
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism that continuously monitors voltage characteristics of individual battery cells during charging and discharging operations. By comparing measured voltages against expected values and identifying deviations, the system detects defective cells and excludes them from balancing operations, thereby maintaining cell voltage consistency through a relatively simple monitoring approach.
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus for controlling balance of a battery includes a battery including multiple battery cells, a sensor measuring voltages of the multiple battery cells and a processor monitoring states of the multiple battery cells to detect failure of the multiple battery cells based on data obtained through the sensor, setting a defective battery cell as an exclusion cell and performing an imbalance determination and balancing operation with respect to the multiple battery cells excluding the battery cell set as the exclusion cell.