Shared Battery Pool Redundancy for Electronic Systems
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Solution Overview
Problem
As the number of information processing devices increases, the number of batteries required to provide redundancy against power outages also increases, leading to higher costs and installation space requirements, making existing battery redundancy methods inefficient.
Innovation Solution
An electronic system with N electronic components and (N+1) batteries, where each component is connected to two batteries, and each battery is connected to two components, ensuring that even if one battery fails, power can be reliably supplied from different normal batteries through selection circuits, thereby ensuring redundancy with a smaller number of batteries.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the number of information processing devices increases, then the power supply coverage increases, but the number of batteries required increases, leading to higher costs and installation space requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the power supply function across multiple devices by implementing a shared battery pool. Instead of dedicating one battery per device, multiple batteries are pooled together and dynamically allocated to serve multiple electronic components through selection circuits. This combining approach reduces the total number of batteries needed while maintaining power supply coverage across all devices.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements universality by designing a common battery pool that can serve multiple electronic components across different devices. The (N+1) batteries are not dedicated to specific components but are universally available to any of the N electronic components through the selection circuits, allowing the same battery resources to fulfill multiple functions and serve multiple devices.
2Reliability
If one battery is coupled to one electronic component, then the reliability of power supply to that component is improved, but the overall system requires more batteries to maintain redundancy
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple battery resources into a shared pool that collectively provides redundancy for all electronic components. Instead of requiring separate backup batteries for each component, the system merges the backup function into a common pool where any battery can serve any component, achieving system-level redundancy with fewer total batteries.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces selection circuits as intermediaries between the battery pool and electronic components. These selection circuits act as mediators that dynamically connect appropriate batteries to components needing power, enabling the battery pool to efficiently serve multiple components while maintaining reliability through controlled access and allocation.
3Reliability
If redundancy is provided for each electronic component individually, then the reliability against power outage is improved, but the installation space and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges individual component-level redundancy into a system-level shared redundancy pool. Instead of allocating dedicated backup batteries to each electronic component (which would require significant space), the system combines all redundancy resources into a common pool that serves all components collectively, dramatically reducing the total installation space required while maintaining equivalent or superior reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements universal redundancy where the same battery pool serves as the backup for all electronic components simultaneously. The (N+1) batteries provide universal backup coverage across N components through dynamic allocation, allowing the same physical battery resources to provide redundancy for multiple different components at different times, thus reducing the space needed compared to dedicated per-component redundancy.
Data Source
AI summary
An electronic system includes N electronic components where N is an integer of 2 or more, (N+1) batteries, and N selection circuits associated with the respective N electronic components. Each of the N electronic components is coupled to two batteries among the (N+1) batteries. Combinations of two batteries coupled to the respective N electronic components are different from each other. Each of (N−1) batteries among the (N+1) batteries is coupled to two electronic components among the N electronic components. Combinations of two electronic components coupled to the respective (N−1) batteries are different from each other. Each of the N selection circuits is configured to supply, as driving power, electric power output from at least one of two batteries coupled to a corresponding electronic component among the N electronic components to the corresponding electronic component.