Battery Cell Voltage Trend Diagnosis for Electrode Tab Defects

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing battery systems face challenges in diagnosing defective battery cells, particularly those with electrode tab defects, especially in large systems where identifying specific defective cells is difficult and timely.

Innovation Solution

A battery system diagnosing apparatus and method that measures end voltages for each battery cell during charging and discharging, accumulates these values over time, and uses a processor to detect defects in electrode tabs by analyzing trends and deviations from reference trends.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Power

If a large number of battery cells are electrically connected in series and/or in parallel to increase output or capacity, then the output or capacity of the battery system is improved, but the difficulty of diagnosing specific defective battery cells increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveoutput or capacityVSAvoiddifficulty of diagnosing specific defective battery cells
Core Design Contradiction:
PowerVSDifficulty of detecting and measuring

Solution Approach 1:

The patent divides the battery system into individual battery cell units, each equipped with independent voltage measurement and identification. By segmenting the monitoring function to each cell level rather than measuring the entire battery pack as a whole, the system can identify specific defective cells even when thousands of cells are connected in series/parallel configurations.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent implements continuous voltage measurement feedback for each battery cell during charging and discharging operations. The voltage information is fed back to the control system, which compares actual voltages against expected ranges to automatically identify defective cells, enabling real-time monitoring and diagnosis in large-scale battery systems.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

2Reliability

If conventional voltage measurement methods are used without trend analysis, then the measurement process is simple, but the ability to detect electrode tab defects and diagnose defective cells in advance is insufficient

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveability to detect electrode tab defectsVSAvoidcomplexity of voltage accumulation and trend analysis system
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent accumulates voltage information from multiple charging and discharging cycles before making a defect diagnosis. By performing preliminary data collection and trend analysis over time rather than relying on single-point measurements, the system can detect electrode tab defects and other issues in advance, improving reliability without requiring complex real-time analysis hardware.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP4203141B1Battery system diagnosing apparatus and method
Publication Date: 2025.06.18 LG ENERGY SOLUTION LTD
  • EP4203141B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP4203141B1 patent drawingFigure 2~3
  • EP4203141B1 patent drawingFigure 4

AI summary

Disclosed is a battery diagnosing technology capable of effectively diagnosing a defective battery cell among a plurality of battery cells included in a battery system at an early stage. The battery system diagnosing apparatus diagnoses a battery system including a plurality of battery cells having electrode tabs therein, and includes a voltage measuring unit configured to measure an end voltage at every charging or discharging for each of the plurality of battery cells; and a processor configured to accumulate the end voltage of each battery cell measured by the voltage measuring unit over time and detect a battery cell having a defect in the electrode tab among the plurality of battery cells based on the accumulated end voltage trend.