Method for charging battery and electronic device applying the method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11916425-B2
Application number	US-202016738477-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 9, 2020
Priority date	Feb 14, 2019
Publication date	Feb 27, 2024
Grant date	Feb 27, 2024

Abstract

An electronic device is provided. The electronic device includes a housing, a battery disposed inside the housing, a power management module for controlling charging of the battery, and at least one processor operationally connected with the battery and the power management module. The at least one processor is provided to direct a plurality of charging intervals while charging the battery, each of the plurality of charging intervals having a target voltage, to alternately charge the battery in a first mode and in a second mode through the power management module, wherein a charging current flowing into the battery is uniformly maintained in the first mode and a voltage of the battery is uniformly maintained in the second mode, and to switch the first mode to the second mode when the voltage of the battery reaches the target voltage in the first mode.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic device comprising:
a housing;
a battery disposed inside the housing;
a power management circuit configured to control charging the battery; and
at least one processor operationally connected with the battery and the power management circuit,
wherein the at least one processor is configured to:
charge the battery in a first mode through the power management circuit during a first charging interval of a plurality of charging intervals, wherein a charging current reflecting a consumption load current used by the electronic device and flowing into the battery remains the same while charging the battery in the first mode when a consumption load current of the electronic device is low and wherein the charging current flowing into the battery does not remain the same while charging the battery in the first mode when the consumption load current of the electronic device is high,
switch from the first mode to a second mode when a voltage of the battery reaches a target voltage of the first charging interval,
charge the battery in the second mode through the power management circuit during the first charging interval, wherein the voltage of the battery is maintained at the target voltage while charging the battery in the second mode, and
switch from the first charging interval to a subsequent charging interval of the plurality of charging intervals when a current flowing into the battery reaches a target current of the first charging interval,

wherein, to switch from the first mode to the second mode, the at least one processor is configured to:
repeatedly identify a first value of a charging current presently flowing into the battery and a second value of an average of the charging current flowing into the battery during the first charging interval, and an average value of the consumption load current during the first charging interval,
determine a greater value from among the first value of the charging current presently flowing into the battery and the second value of the average of the charging current flowing into the battery,
based on the greater value exceeding a first reference current of the first charging interval, initialize an effective count to zero, wherein the first reference current is different from the charging current flowing into the battery that remains the same while charging the battery in the first mode,
based on a sum of the greater value and the average value of the consumption load current being less than or equal to the first reference current, increase the effective count by one, and
based on the effective count exceeding a specified number of a plurality of times, switch from the first charging mode to the charging mode,

wherein each subsequent charging interval of the plurality of charging intervals includes a corresponding first mode in which the charging current flowing into the battery remains the same and a corresponding second mode in which the voltage of the battery remains the same, and
wherein the first mode is a constant current charging mode and the second mode is a constant voltage charging mode.

2. The electronic device of claim 1 ,
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
determine a state of charge of the battery, and

wherein the switch from the first mode to the second mode is further based on the state of charge of the battery reaching a minimum charging state value.

3. The electronic device of claim 1 ,
wherein the switch from the first charging interval to the subsequent charging interval of the plurality of charging intervals is further based on:
the greater value being less than the first reference current of the first charging interval consecutively for a specified period of time during the first charging interval, and
a reached target voltage being less than a full voltage at which the battery is fully charged.

4. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
based on determining that a reached target voltage is a voltage at which the battery is fully charged, gradually block the charging current after entering the second mode.

5. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
based on determining that the charging current is not at a limited level due to a present state of the electronic device and a state of charge of the battery reaches an interval maximum value in the first charging interval, enter the subsequent charging interval.

6. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein a gradual decrease of the charging current during the second mode is performed by maintaining the voltage of the battery and decreasing the charging current based to an inverse function, an exponential function, or a logarithmic function to maintain the voltage of the battery the same.

7. The electronic device of claim 6 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
gradually decrease the charging current from a first charging current (I 1 ) to a second charging current (I 2 ) while maintaining the voltage of the battery as a first target voltage (V 1 ) from a first time (T 1 ) to a second time (T 2 ),
gradually decrease the charging current from the second charging current (I 2 ) to a third charging current (I 3 ) while maintaining the voltage of the battery as a second target voltage (V 2 ) from a third time (T 3 ) to a fourth time (T 4 ), and
gradually decrease the charging current from the third charging current (I 3 ) to a fourth charging current (I 4 ) while maintaining the voltage of the battery as a third target voltage (V 3 ) from a fifth time (T 5 ) to a sixth time (T 6 ).

8. The electronic device of claim 1 ,
wherein the voltage of the battery is increased in the first mode and a charging speed is increased, and
wherein the charging current is decreased in the second mode and the charging speed is decreased.

9. A method of charging a battery of an electronic device, the method comprising:
performing charging in a first mode in which first charging current reflecting a consumption load current user by the electronic device remains the same during a first interval of a plurality of intervals when a consumption load current of the electronic device is low, and in which the first charging current does not remain the same during the first interval when the consumption load current of the electronic device is high;
identifying whether a state of charge (SoC) of the battery reaches a first charging state value;
switching from the first mode to a second mode when a voltage of the battery reaches a first target voltage of the first interval;
obtaining a first value that is a charging current presently flowing into the battery and a second value of an average value of the charging current flowing into the battery during the first interval;
performing charging in the second mode in which a first target voltage is maintained at the first target voltage while gradually changing the first charging current to a second charging current; and
switching from the first interval to a subsequent second interval of the plurality of intervals when a current flowing into the battery reaches a target current of the first interval,
wherein the switch from the first mode to the second mode comprises:
repeatedly identifying a first value of a charging current presently flowing into the battery and a second value of an average of the charging current flowing into the battery during the first interval, and an average value of the consumption load current during the first interval;
determining a greater value from among the first value and the second value;
based on the greater value exceeding a first reference curr

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Ha Youngmi
• Oh Hyunjun
• Lee Jungmin
• Jung Kuchul
• Cho Sungjoon
• Choi Hansol
• Kim Kyounghoon
• Lee Seongil

Classifications

• H02J7/82

  Control of state of charge [SOC] · CPC title

• H02J7/94

  in response to battery current · CPC title

• H02J7/96 Primary

  in response to battery voltage · CPC title

• Y02E60/10

  Energy storage using batteries · CPC title

• H02J7/947 Primary

  in response to integrated charge or discharge current · CPC title