Battery control unit

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10903667-B2
Application number	US-201816215388-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 10, 2018
Priority date	Dec 8, 2017
Publication date	Jan 26, 2021
Grant date	Jan 26, 2021

Abstract

The battery control unit includes a voltage detection unit detecting voltage at the battery cell where noise is eliminated by the filter circuit, the voltage being detected immediately before/after a discharging is performed through the discharge circuit; a correction value calculation unit that calculates an amount of a voltage drop at the connection member when a discharging is performed through the discharge circuit, to be a correction value; and a voltage calculation unit that calculates voltage of the battery cell by adding the correction value calculated by the correction value calculation unit to a post-discharge voltage detected immediately after the discharging by the voltage detection unit.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A battery control unit for a power supply system, the power supply system having: a storage battery in which a plurality of battery cells are connected in series, a filter circuit provided for each of the battery cells including a capacitor and eliminating noise included in voltage transmitted from that battery cell, a connection member that connects between each battery cell and the respective filter circuit, and a discharge circuit including a discharge switch provided for each of the battery cells and connected in series to the battery cell via the connection member and a discharge resistor, the battery control unit comprising:
a voltage detection unit provided for each of the battery cells, configured to detect voltage at the respective battery cell where noise is eliminated by the respective filter circuit, the voltage being detected immediately before or after discharging is performed through the discharge circuit;
an initial correction value calculation unit configured to calculate an initial correction value when the power supply system is activated and when discharging has been performed for all of the battery cells through the discharge circuit, the initial correction value being calculated by comparing voltage detected at a previous or next detection timing of the post-discharge voltage detected by each voltage detection unit, with the post-discharge voltage;
a correction value calculation unit configured to:
calculate, while the power supply system is being operated, an amount of a voltage drop at the connection member when discharging is performed through the discharge circuit, to be a correction value; and
correct, during the power supply system being operated, the initial correction value calculated by the initial correction value calculation unit to be the correction value, depending on a state of each battery cell when being discharged through the discharge circuit; and

a voltage calculation unit configured to calculate voltage of each battery cell by adding the correction value calculated by the correction value calculation unit to a post-discharge voltage detected by the respective voltage detection unit, the post-discharge voltage being voltage detected immediately after the discharging.

2. The battery control unit according to claim 1 , wherein the correction value calculation unit is configured to correct the initial correction value to be the correction value, based on a ratio between a pre-discharge voltage of each battery cell detected by the respective voltage detection unit when the initial correction value calculation unit calculates the initial correction value, and the pre-discharge voltage of that battery cell detected by the voltage detection unit immediately before discharging is performed through the discharge circuit during the power supply system being operated.

3. The battery control unit according to claim 1 , wherein the correction value calculation unit is configured to correct the correction value to be the correction value such that the initial correction value of one battery cell is multiplied by the pre-discharge voltage immediately before discharging one battery cell, and the multiplied initial correction value is divided by the pre-discharge voltage at a time when calculating the correction value of one battery cell, thereby correcting the correction value.

4. The battery control unit according to claim 1 , wherein
the connection member is shared by battery cells adjacently located to each other, and
the correction calculation unit is configured to correct the initial correction value to be the correction value when the one battery cell does not discharge but the battery cell located adjacently to one side of the one battery cell discharges, such that a value where the initial correction value of the one battery cell is multiplied by a pre-discharge voltage immediately before discharging the adjacent battery cell is divided by a pre-discharge voltage at a time when the initial correction value of the adjacent battery cell is calculated, and the divided value is halved to produce a negative value, thereby correcting the initial correction value to be the correction value.

5. The battery control unit according to claim 1 , wherein
the connection member is shared by battery cells adjacently located to each other,
the correction calculation unit is configured to correct the initial correction value to be the correction value when the one battery cell does not discharge but both battery cells located adjacently to the one battery cell discharge, such that a value where the initial correction value of the one battery cell is multiplied by a pre-discharge voltage immediately before discharging the adjacent battery cell of one side, is divided by a pre-discharge voltage at a time when the initial correction value of the adjacent battery cell of the one side and the divided value is halved to be a first value, and
a value where the initial correction value of the one battery cell is multiplied by a pre-discharge voltage immediately before discharging the adjacent battery cell of the other side, is divided by a pre-discharge voltage at a time when the initial correction value of the adjacent battery cell of the other side and the divided value is halved to be a second value, the first value and the second value are added to be a negative value, thereby correcting the initial correction value to be the correction value.

6. The battery control unit according to claim 1 , wherein
the correction value calculation unit includes a temperature measuring unit that measures a temperature of the battery cells, and
the correction calculation unit is configured to correct the initial correction value to be the correction value based on a difference between a temperature measured by the temperature measuring unit at a time when the initial correction value is corrected and a temperature measured by the temperature measuring unit at a time when discharging is performed through the discharge circuit when the power supply system is being operated.

Assignees

• Denso Corp

Inventors

• Kitagawa Masaaki
• Ito Masahiko
• Kouda Masakazu
• Ishibe Isao

Classifications

• H02J7/80

  including monitoring or indicating arrangements · CPC title

• H02J7/54 Primary

  Passive balancing, e.g. using resistors or parallel MOSFETs · CPC title

• G01R31/374

  with means for correcting the measurement for temperature or ageing · CPC title

• G01R31/3835

  involving only voltage measurements · CPC title

• G01R31/396

  Acquisition or processing of data for testing or for monitoring individual cells or groups of cells within a battery · CPC title