Smart Battery Cell Full-Bridge Charging Without DC-DC Boosters
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Solution Overview
Problem
Electric vehicles often require large, heavy, and expensive power conversion modules like DC-DC boosters to charge due to high voltage levels, which are cumbersome and inefficient.
Innovation Solution
Implementing smart battery cells with independently controllable full-bridges that can be configured into charge, discharge, or by-pass states, allowing a charging station with lower voltage to charge the battery without a DC-DC booster.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a DC-DC booster is used to enable charging with lower voltage stations, then charging compatibility is improved, but device size, weight, and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the battery pack into multiple independently controllable battery cells, each equipped with its own full-bridge circuit. This segmentation allows individual cells to be charged or bypassed independently, enabling the battery pack to accept lower voltage charging without requiring a bulky DC-DC booster.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent dynamically changes the electrical parameters (voltage, current paths) of individual battery cells through the full-bridge circuits. By controlling the switching states of the full-bridges, the system can present different effective voltage characteristics to the charging station, allowing compatibility with lower voltage chargers without power conversion hardware.
2Adaptability or versatility
If a DC-DC booster is used to enable charging with lower voltage stations, then charging compatibility is improved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The full-bridge circuits serve multiple functions: they enable charging in charge state, allow bypassing in bypass state, and can operate in discharge state. This multi-functionality eliminates the need for separate DC-DC booster hardware, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining charging compatibility across different voltage stations.
Solution Approach 2:
The battery pack's own full-bridge circuits perform the voltage adaptation function that would otherwise require an external DC-DC booster. Each battery cell's full-bridge independently manages its own charging or bypassing, making the system self-sufficient without additional power conversion equipment.
3Productivity
If all battery cells are charged simultaneously, then charging speed is improved, but voltage matching with charging stations becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent dynamically adjusts the charging configuration by switching individual full-bridges between charge and bypass states based on real-time voltage conditions. This dynamic control allows the system to maintain high charging speed when voltage matches while adapting to lower voltage stations by bypassing overcharged cells, thus resolving the contradiction between speed and adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The control system preliminarily assesses the charging station's voltage capability and pre-configures the full-bridge states accordingly. By predicting the voltage matching requirements before charging begins, the system can optimize the charging configuration in advance, maintaining both speed and adaptability.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and techniques that facilitate smartcell battery architectures and methodologies are provided. In various embodiments, a battery can comprise a positive terminal and a negative terminal. In various aspects, the battery can further comprise a set of smart battery cells that are serially coupled between the positive terminal and the negative terminal and that respectively comprise full-bridges. In various instances, the full-bridges can have charge states, discharge states, and/or by-pass states. When some of the set of smart battery cells have full-bridges in the charge state, and when others of the set of smart battery cells have full-bridges in the discharge state or by-pass state, the battery can be charged by a supplied voltage that is less than the sum of individual voltages of all of the set of smart battery cells.