Battery Management System Fault Injection via Dedicated Terminal

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing battery management systems for electric vehicles face challenges in verifying their safety status when internal faults occur in semiconductor components like battery cell monitoring integrated circuits, necessitating a method to directly and easily inject faults for diagnosis without damaging the system.

Innovation Solution

A battery management system with a fault generator unit and a battery cell monitoring unit connected through dedicated communication and fault input/output terminals, allowing for the direct injection of internal faults and diagnosis without altering existing communication lines, enabling the system to transition to a safety status without affecting the microcontroller or battery cell monitoring unit operations.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If a separate communication device is connected between the microcontroller unit and the battery cell monitoring unit to input faults, then the fault injection capability is improved, but the device complexity increases and the existing communication lines are altered

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvefault injection capabilityVSAvoiddevice complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The fault input function is extracted from the communication interface and implemented as a separate fault information input terminal directly connected to the battery cell monitoring unit. This allows fault injection without requiring a separate communication device connected between the microcontroller unit and battery cell monitoring unit, thereby reducing device complexity while maintaining fault injection capability

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The fault information input terminal serves as a dedicated intermediary interface that directly connects the external fault source to the battery cell monitoring unit's internal fault register. This intermediary approach enables fault injection without altering existing communication lines or requiring complex communication devices, resolving the contradiction between reliability and device complexity

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Device complexity

If the battery cell monitoring unit is integrated with the microcontroller unit, then the device complexity is reduced, but the ability to independently diagnose and verify safety status is worsened

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedevice complexityVSAvoidsafety status verification capability

Core Design Contradiction:

Device complexityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The battery management system is segmented into distinct functional units: the microcontroller unit for control, the battery cell monitoring unit for monitoring, and the fault generator unit for fault injection. The battery cell monitoring unit contains internal diagnosis functionality that operates independently, allowing safety status verification while maintaining low device complexity through functional segmentation rather than physical integration

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The battery cell monitoring unit is equipped with self-diagnosis capability through internal diagnosis functionality that can autonomously detect faults and generate diagnosis results. This self-service approach enables independent safety status verification without requiring complex integrated control, resolving the contradiction between device complexity and safety verification capability

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

3Reliability

If existing communication lines are altered to enable fault injection, then the fault injection capability is improved, but the risk of damaging the system increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvefault injection capabilityVSAvoidsystem damage risk

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The fault injection capability is extracted from the existing communication lines and implemented through a dedicated fault information input terminal. This separate interface allows fault injection without altering or risking damage to the existing communication lines between the microcontroller unit and battery cell monitoring unit, resolving the contradiction between fault injection capability and system damage risk

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The fault information input terminal acts as a dedicated intermediary that provides a safe, isolated path for fault injection. This intermediary interface is specifically designed for fault testing and does not interfere with or risk damaging the existing communication lines, enabling reliable fault injection while protecting the system from potential damage

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Data Source

PatentUS11650254B2Battery management system

Publication Date: 2023.05.16 SK ON CO LTD

AI summary

A battery management system includes a microcontroller unit which transmits and receives communications information through a communications input/output terminal, a fault generator unit which generates fault information and transmits the fault information through a fault information output terminal, and a battery cell monitoring unit which is coupled to the communications input/output terminal and the fault information output terminal and diagnoses an operation of internal function based on the fault information transmitted from the fault generator unit and outputs an internal diagnosis result value to the microcontroller unit.