Electricity: battery or capacitor charging or discharging – Battery or cell discharging – With charging
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-13
2001-01-30
Wong, Peter S. (Department: 2838)
Electricity: battery or capacitor charging or discharging
Battery or cell discharging
With charging
Reexamination Certificate
active
06181107
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a recharger for recharging a lithium ion (Li-ion) secondary battery pack, a method for recharging the secondary battery pack, and a recharging system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an Li(litium) -ion secondary battery pack is known in the field.
FIG. 8
indicates an internal circuit diagram of a typical Li-ion secondary battery pack
900
, and a circuit block diagram of a recharger for recharging this type of Li-ion battery pack
900
.
As indicated in this drawing, the Li-ion battery pack
900
is arranged by employing a case
901
for storing thereinto an Li-ion secondary battery (cell), an Li-ion secondary battery
902
stored in the case
901
, and a plus terminal
903
a
of a recharging terminal, which is exposed outside the case
901
and is connected via a diode
905
to a plus (positive) polarity side of the Li-ion secondary battery
902
. Furthermore, this Li-ion secondary battery pack
900
is arranged by employing a minus terminal
903
b
of the recharging terminal, which is similarly exposed and is connected to a minus polarity side of the Li-ion secondary battery
902
, a resistor element
906
connected to the plus polarity side of the Li-ion secondary battery
902
of the diode, and a voltage detecting terminal
90
connected to this resistor element
906
. Also, this Li-ion secondary battery pack is constituted by a plus side
908
a
of an output terminal which is connected to the plus terminal side of the Li-ion secondary battery
902
and is exposed from the outer surface of the case, and a minus side
908
b
of the output terminal which is connected to the minus polarity side of the Li-ion battery
902
and is exposed from the outer surface of the case
901
.
Also, the recharger
910
for recharging the above-described Li-ion (lithium ion) secondary battery pack
900
is arranged by using a plus terminal
911
, a minus terminal
913
, a terminal
912
, a recharging power supplying unit
920
, a voltage measuring unit
930
, and a recharging control unit
940
. The plus terminal
911
is connected to the plus terminal
903
a
of the recharging terminal provided with the Li-ion secondary battery pack
900
. The minus terminal
913
is connected to the minus side
903
b
of this recharging terminal. The terminal
912
is connected to the voltage detecting terminal
907
. Furthermore, the recharging power supplying unit
920
supplies a predetermined voltage and a predetermined current to the plus terminal
911
and the minus terminal
913
, respectively. The voltage measuring unit
930
is connected to the terminal
912
so as to measure the voltage of the Li-ion secondary pack
900
. The recharging control unit
940
is connected to both the recharging power supplying unit
920
and the voltage measuring unit
930
in order to control the recharging operation.
In the recharger
910
with the above circuit arrangement for recharging the Li-ion secondary battery pack
900
, the recharging control unit
940
starts its recharging operation under a constant current from the recharging terminals
911
and
913
. After the output voltage of this Li-ion battery pack recharger
910
measured by the voltage measuring unit
930
reaches the preselected voltage, this recharging control unit
940
continues its recharging operation while keeping this output voltage constant. As a result, the recharging control unit
940
detects the recharging voltage of the Li-ion secondary battery
902
via the voltage detecting terminal
912
by way of the voltage measuring unit
930
.
It should be noted that the above-described diode
905
is employed for the shortcircuit preventing element. That is, when the plus terminal
903
a
of the Li-ion secondary battery pack
900
is shortcircuited with the minus terminal
903
b
thereof by a metal, and the like, this diode
905
can prevent the flow of this shortcircuit current.
The above-explained conventional Li-ion secondary battery pack, Li-ion battery pack recharger, Li-ion battery pack recharging method, and further Li-ion battery pack recharging system own the following problems.
To recharge the Li-ion secondary battery up to the full recharging voltage, a voltage detecting terminal
907
is required, which greatly impacts the compactness/light weight characteristics of the Li-ion secondary battery pack and the Li-ion secondary battery recharger. On the other hand, in the Li-ion secondary battery pack and the Li-ion secondary battery recharger, the circuit becomes complicated so as to correct the voltage drop occurred in the diode, which may further impede compactness/light weight of these battery pack and battery recharger.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present providing a Li-ion secondary battery pack system which can be made compact, light weight, and can be manufactured in a simple construction along with providing a method for recharging the Li-ion secondary battery pack system.
To achieve the above-explained object, an Li-ion (lithium ion) secondary battery pack, is featured by an Li-ion secondary battery; a case for storing thereinto the Li-ion secondary battery; recharging terminals exposed from an outer surface of the case; a shortcircuit preventing diode used to connect the recharging terminals to the Li-ion secondary battery, and capable of blocking a flow of a shortcircuit current when a shortcircuit happens to occur between the recharging terminals; a resistance element connected in parallel to the diode; and an output terminal connected to the Li-ion secondary battery.
An Li-ion secondary battery recharger, is featured by such a recharger for an Li-ion (lithium ion) secondary battery pack including: an Li-ion secondary battery; a case for storing thereinto the Li-ion secondary battery; recharging terminals exposed from an outer surface of the case; a shortcircuit preventing diode used to connect the recharging terminals to the Li-ion secondary battery, and capable of blocking a flow of a shortcircuit current when a shortcircuit happens to occur between the recharging terminals; a resistance element connected in parallel to the diode; and an output terminal connected to the Li-ion secondary battery, the recharger comprising: a recharging power supplying circuit connected to the recharging terminals, for supplying recharging power; a recharging voltage measuring circuit for measuring a voltage appearing at the recharging terminals; and a recharging control circuit for controlling the recharging power supplying circuit based upon the measured voltage by the recharging voltage measuring circuit.
In accordance with the present invention, the recharging control circuit issues an instruction to supply the recharging power to the Li-ion secondary battery from the recharging power supplying circuit, so that this Li-ion secondary battery is recharged. At the same time, the recharging control circuit reads the voltage of the recharging terminals from the recharging voltage measuring circuit, and then controls the recharging power supplying circuit to supply the recharging power to the Li-ion secondary battery in response to this read voltage. As a result, the Li-ion secondary battery can be recharged up to a preselected recharging voltage.
Also, in the Li-ion secondary battery pack recharger, the recharging control circuit controls the recharging power supplying circuit to recharge the Li-ion secondary battery under a constant current until the recharging voltage measuring circuit measures that the voltage appearing at the recharging terminals becomes a preset constant voltage; after recharging the Li-ion secondary battery until the terminal voltage becomes the preset constant voltage, the recharging control circuit controls the recharging power supplying circuit in such a manner that supplying of the constant voltage and interrupting of the supply of the constant voltage are repeatedly performed; while the supply of the constant voltage is interrupted, a voltage measurement by the recharging voltage measuring circuit is ca
NEC Corporation
Sughrue Mion Zinn Macpeak & Seas, PLLC
Tibbits Pia
Wong Peter S.
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