Battery pack

Details Battery pack Battery pack

1999-12-10

2001-05-15

Wong, Peter S. (Department: 2838)

Electricity: battery or capacitor charging or discharging

Battery or cell discharging

Regulated discharging

Reexamination Certificate

active

06232749

ABSTRACT:

This invention is related to battery packs.
Currently battery packs use rechargeable batteries such as lithium ion or nickel cadmium batteries to power electronic devices such as camcorders and cell phones. Other types of rechargeable batteries include nickel metal hydride batteries. These batteries tend to be expensive and sometimes not convenient. There exists some refillable battery packs with primary cells, i.e., that accept alkaline cells and are used to power both camcorders and cellular telephones.
SUMMARY
According to an aspect of the invention, a battery pack includes a DC to DC converter and a group of at least one primary cell coupled to the DC-DC converter.
The battery pack has a step down DC-DC converter. The group of primary cells comprise a plurality of cells coupled in series. The DC-DC converter includes a controller and an externally coupled switching transistor. The battery pack has the DC-DC converter with an input coupled to one terminal of the group of cells and an output that forms one of the terminals of the battery pack. The group of primary cells can be replaceable or non-replaceable. The battery pack includes a case that houses the DC to DC converter and group of primary cells. The primary cells can be configured in a parrallel combination and used with a step up converter to provide a higher voltage output.
One or more of the following advantages may be provided by one or more aspects of the invention.
This invention provides a battery pack including primary cells such as alkaline cells and other types of primary cells such as lithium manganese dioxide. Primary battery cells are not rechargeable. The battery pack includes a grouping of primary cells held in a cartridge and a DC to DC converter.
The DC-DC converter in the battery pack extracts additional energy from the primary e.g., alkaline cells. The DC to DC converter accepts an input voltage and produces a different, generally lower output voltage. Generally a “step down voltage converter” is used to produce the lower voltage. For other applications, a step up or boosting type converter can be used.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5323100 (1994-06-01), Iketani
patent: 5945806 (1999-08-01), Faulk
patent: 5990664 (1999-11-01), Rahman

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