Electronic equipment and battery unit

Details Electronic equipment and battery unit Electronic equipment and battery unit

1999-11-09

2002-12-24

Tso, Edward H. (Department: 2838)

Electricity: battery or capacitor charging or discharging

Battery or cell discharging

With charging

C320S127000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06498459

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to electronic equipments and battery units (or sometimes also referred to as battery packs), and more particularly to an electronic equipment such as a personal computer which uses a detachable battery unit, and to a battery unit which is constructed to suppress deterioration of a battery thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Portable electronic equipments can generally be driven by a battery. However, in portable information processing apparatuses such as a lap-top personal computer, a discharge current is large and the battery is used up within a short time. For this reason, instead of using a disposable primary battery, it is more general to use a chargable secondary battery for such portable electronic equipments. In order to make the secondary battery easily replacable, and at the same time enable a long operation time by use of a plurality of batteries, the secondary battery is formed as a battery unit which is detachable with respect to the electronic equipment.
Recently, in order to enable a user to easily judge a usable time of the battery unit, there are demands to predict a remaining capacity of the battery unit. In addition, a so-called smart battery has been proposed, and such a battery unit not only includes a battery but also includes an electronic circuit which carries out operations such as calculating a capacity of the battery and storing battery information.
FIG. 1
is a system block diagram for explaining a conventional battery unit and an electronic equipment. An electronic equipment
1
includes terminals
2
through
5
and a microcontroller (or microcomputer)
6
which are connected as shown in FIG.
1
. On the other hand, a battery unit
11
includes terminals
12
through
14
, a battery
15
, a power supply circuit
16
, and an electronic circuit
17
which are connected as shown in FIG.
1
.
When an external power supply such as an AC adapter
7
is connected to the terminal
2
of the electronic equipment
1
, the electronic equipment
1
can use a power supply voltage from the external power supply. In addition, when the battery unit
11
is connected to the electronic equipment
1
, the electronic equipment
1
can use a power supply voltage from the battery unit
11
via the terminals
12
and
3
and the terminal
14
and
5
.
In the battery unit
11
, the power supply voltage from the battery
15
is output via the terminals
12
and
14
, and this power supply voltage is also supplied to the electronic circuit
17
via the power supply circuit
16
. For example, the electronic circuit
17
includes a CPU, a memory or the like, and the supply of the power supply voltage to this electronic circuit
17
is only made via the power supply circuit
16
.
Information is exchanged between the electronic circuit
17
and the microcontroller
6
within the electronic equipment
1
is made via the terminals
13
and
4
.
However, in a state where the conventional battery unit
11
is stored by itself, the power supply circuit
16
constantly supplies the power supply voltage even though the internal electronic circuit
17
does not require the supply of the power supply voltage, and there is a problem in that the discharge of the battery
15
constantly occurs. For example, in a case where a non-volatile memory for storing battery information is provided within the electronic circuit
17
and the battery information is read by the microcontroller
6
when the battery unit
11
is connected to the electronic equipment
1
, the power supply voltage only needs to be supplied to the electronic circuit
17
in the state where the battery unit
11
is connected to the electronic equipment
1
. In a state where the battery unit
11
is not connected to the electronic equipment
1
, that is, in the state where the battery unit
11
is stored by itself, the memory contents of the non-volatile memory within the electronic circuit
17
will be maintained even if the power supply voltage is not supplied to the electronic circuit
17
, and in this state, it is unnecessary to supply the power supply voltage to the electronic circuit
17
.
In addition, the power supply circuit
16
within the battery unit
11
may be provided with a function of stopping the supply of power when the voltage of the battery
15
becomes lower than a predetermined voltage. But in this case, the discharge of the battery
15
does not become zero even if the supply of power is stopped, and an extremely small current actually continues to flow. For this reason, in a case where the battery
15
is made up of a lithium-ion battery or the like which is vulnerable to excessive discharge, there is a problem in that the deterioration of the battery
15
continues even after the supply of power is stopped.
Furthermore, since the power supply voltage from the battery
15
is supplied to the electronic circuit
17
via the power supply circuit
16
, the electronic circuit
17
is easily affected by the state of the battery
15
. For example, in a case where the battery
15
is in an excessively discharged state and the voltage of the battery
15
is lower than the voltage required to operate the electronic circuit
17
, even if the microcontroller
6
attempts to read information from the electronic circuit
17
when the battery unit
11
is connected to the electronic equipment
1
, the information cannot be read from the electronic circuit
17
because the electronic circuit
17
will not operate. In other words, even though the electronic equipment
1
can operate using the external power supply, the electronic circuit
17
within the battery unit
11
uses the voltage of the battery
15
, and the information cannot be read from the electronic circuit
17
until the voltage of the battery
15
rises to the voltage which can operate the electronic circuit
17
.
Conventionally, in a case where the information cannot be read from the electronic circuit
17
due to the excessively discharged state of the battery
15
, the battery
15
of the battery unit
11
is once charged via the electronic equipment
1
, and the information is read from the electronic circuit
17
after the voltage of the battery
15
reaches the voltage required to operate the electronic circuit
17
. But for example, an abnormal state of the battery unit
11
may have been detected already, and information indicating that the charging should be prohibited due to the abnormal state of the battery
15
may already have been written within the electronic circuit
17
. However, this information indicating that the charging should be prohibited cannot be read by the microcontroller
6
until the battery
15
is charged.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is a general object of the present invention to provide a novel and useful electronic equipment and battery unit, in which the problems described above are eliminated.
Another and more specific object of the present invention to provide an electronic equipment and a battery unit which eliminate the problems described above, by effectively suppressing a discharge of a battery when the battery unit is stored by itself so as to prevent deterioration of the battery, and by immediately reading information stored within the battery unit regardless of a state of the battery within the battery unit.
Still another object of the object of the present invention is to provide an electronic equipment connectable to a battery unit which includes a battery and an electronic circuit having the battery isolated as a power supply, comprising a power supply section supplying power to the electronic equipment. According to the electronic equipment of the present invention, it is possible to effectively suppress a discharge of a battery when the battery unit is stored by itself so as to prevent deterioration of the battery, and to immediately read information stored within the battery unit regardless of a state of the battery within the battery unit.
A further object of the present invention is to pro

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