Systems and methods for monitoring and responding to forces influencing a battery

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10923776-B2
Application number	US-62514309-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 24, 2009
Priority date	Dec 31, 2007
Publication date	Feb 16, 2021
Grant date	Feb 16, 2021

Abstract

Systems and methods for monitoring and responding to forces influencing batteries of electronic devices are provided. One or more sensors may be provided at various positions within a battery assembly including one or more battery cells within an enclosure. In some embodiments, a sensor may be provided between a battery cell and a portion of the enclosure. In other embodiments, a sensor may be positioned between two adjacent cells in a stack. Each sensor may detect a force influencing a battery cell of the assembly. In some embodiments, the sensor may be a force sensing material having a conductance configured to vary based on the influencing force. In other embodiments, the sensor may be a contact sensor that detects when the influencing force moves two elements together.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic device, comprising:
a rigid enclosure containing operational components, the operational components comprising:
a battery cell;
an external force sensor coupled with an exterior surface of the battery cell and configured to detect physical contact with an external surface of the battery cell, the external force sensor further configured to generate a first sense signal indicative of the contact in response to the detected contact;
an internal force sensor positioned within the battery cell configured to detect an internal force generated by conditions internal to the battery cell, and generates a second sense signal indicative of a magnitude of the internal force in response to the detected internal force; and
a processor coupled with the internal and the external force sensors configured to receive the first sense signal and the second sense signal and alter a facility of the electronic device based on the received first and second sense signals such that the facility of the electronic device is altered during operation of the electronic device and in response to a force detected by the external force sensor or internal force sensor.

2. The electronic device as recited in claim 1 , wherein the battery cell is a first battery cell and the operational components further comprise a second battery cell.

3. The electronic device as recited in claim 2 , wherein the internal force sensor is a pressure sensor configured to detect an internal pressure of the first battery cell.

4. The electronic device as recited in claim 3 , wherein when the internal pressure of the first battery cell reaches or exceeds a threshold, the second sense signal causes the processor to electrically isolate and shut down the first battery cell while continuing operation of the second battery cell.

5. The electronic device as recited in claim 4 , wherein the first battery cell and the second battery cell are in a stacked arrangement with each other and housed in a rigid battery case.

6. The electronic device as recited in claim 5 , the electronic device further comprising a contact sensor positioned on an interior surface of the rigid battery case and configured to detect a contact with the first battery cell and/or the second battery cell and provide a contact signal.

7. The electronic device as recited in claim 6 , wherein the contact signal causes the processor to alter an operation of the first and/or second battery cell.

8. The electronic device as recited in claim 1 , further comprising a contact sensor positioned on an interior surface of the rigid enclosure and configured to detect a contact with the battery cell and provide a contact signal.

9. The electronic device as recited in claim 1 , wherein the facility of the electronic device includes an operation related to charging or drawing current from the battery cell.

10. An electronic device, comprising:
a rigid housing containing components, the components comprising:
a processor,
a battery cell comprising an internal pressure sensor arranged to detect an internal pressure generated by conditions internal to the battery cell, the internal pressure sensor configured to send a detected pressure signal to the processor, wherein the processor is configured to respond in accordance with a threshold pressure by altering a facility of the electronic device based on the detected pressure signal, such that the facility of the electronic device is altered in response to a detected pressure;
an external force sensor coupled with an exterior surface of the battery cell and configured to detect physical contact with an external surface of the battery cell, the external force sensor further configured to generate a first sense signal indicative of the contact in response to the detected contact; and
wherein the facility altered includes operation of a cooling unit.

11. The electronic device as recited in claim 10 , the electronic device further comprising an object located away from the battery cell.

12. The electronic device as recited in claim 11 , wherein the object is a device component coupled to the processor and having a contact sensor arranged to detect a contact between the device component and the battery cell and provide a contact signal to the processor.

13. The electronic device as recited in claim 12 , wherein the contact signal causes the processor to alter an operation of the battery cell.

14. The electronic device as recited in claim 11 , wherein the object is the rigid housing having a contact sensor positioned on an interior surface of the rigid housing and arranged to detect a contact between the rigid housing and the battery cell and provide a contact signal to the processor.

15. A system for use in an electronic device having a rigid enclosure housing operational components, the operational components comprising:
a battery assembly comprising a first battery cell and a second battery cell in a stacked arrangement within a rigid case, the first and second battery cells arranged to provide power singly or cooperatively to at least some of the operational components,
an external force sensor coupled with an exterior surface of the battery cell and configured to detect physical contact with an external surface of the battery cell, the external force sensor further configured to generate a first sense signal indicative of the contact in response to the detected contact, and
a contact sensor disposed between the rigid case and the first and second battery cells and arranged to detect a physical contact with an external surface of the first or second battery cells and provide a corresponding contact signal indicative of a magnitude and duration of the physical contact; and
a processor configured to receive the contact signal and alter a facility of the battery assembly based on the received contact signal such that the facility of the electronic device is altered in response to a detected contact during operation of the system.

16. The system as recited in claim 15 , wherein the contact is caused by displacement of the first and/or the second battery cell within the rigid case.

17. The system as recited in claim 16 , wherein the displacement of the first and/or second battery cell is caused by an impact event at the rigid enclosure.

18. The system as recited in claim 16 , wherein the contact at the rigid case is caused by an expansion of the first and/or the second battery cells.

19. The system as recited in claim 15 , wherein the facility to be altered includes operation of at least one of a backlight, a hard disk, a CPU, a cooling unit, a backup system, an alarm, a dialog box, or a user interface.

20. The system as recited in claim 15 , wherein the altered facility includes altering performance of the first battery cell independently from performance of the second battery cell.

Assignees

• Spare Bradley L
• Murphy Robert Sean
• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Spare Bradley L
• Murphy Robert Sean

Classifications

• H01M10/48 Primary

  Accumulators combined with arrangements for measuring, testing or indicating the condition of cells, e.g. the level or density of the electrolyte (constructional details of current conducting connections for detecting conditions inside cells or batteries, e.g. details of voltage sensing terminals, H01M50/569) · CPC title

• H01M6/42

  Grouping of primary cells into batteries (H01M6/40 takes precedence) · CPC title

• Y02E60/10

  Energy storage using batteries · CPC title