Cell connection control device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9391347-B2
Application number	US-201214364560-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 5, 2012
Priority date	Dec 12, 2011
Publication date	Jul 12, 2016
Grant date	Jul 12, 2016

Abstract

When connecting a plurality of cells in parallel, an operation to calculate an inrush current flowing when a pair of cells are selected from the cells for the parallel-connection and parallel-connected for all cell combinations. A cell combination, whose inrush current is the largest in the cell combinations which are judged that the calculated inrush current is less than or equal to a predetermined upper limit current value, is set as a cell combination to parallel-connect the cells.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A cell connection control device that sets a combination of cells when parallel-connecting a plurality of cells, comprising:
a determining unit that determines a plurality of cells for parallel-connection of the cells;
an inrush current calculating unit that performs an operation to select a pair of cells from the cells determined by the determining unit and to calculate an inrush current flowing between the selected pair of cells when parallel-connected, for all combinations of the determined cells;
a judging unit that judges whether the inrush current calculated by the inrush current calculating unit is less than or equal to a predetermined upper limit current value or not, for all cell combinations which have undergone the calculation of the inrush current; and
a connection cell setting unit that sets, as a cell combination to parallel-connect the cells, a cell combination whose inrush current is the largest in the cell combinations which are judged that the inrush current is less than or equal to the upper limit current value by the judging unit.

2. The cell connection control device as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising:
an internal resistance obtaining unit that obtains internal resistances of the plurality of cells determined by the determining unit; and
an internal resistance variation judging unit that calculates variation of the internal resistance on the basis of the internal resistances of the plurality of cells determined by the determining unit and judges whether the variation of the internal resistance is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold value or not,
and wherein
when judged that the variation of the internal resistance is less than or equal to the threshold value by the internal resistance variation judging unit, the connection cell setting unit sets, as the cell combination to parallel-connect the cells, a cell combination whose inrush current is the largest in the cell combinations which are judged that the inrush current is less than or equal to the upper limit current value by the judging unit.

3. The cell connection control device as claimed in claim 2 , further comprising:
a combined resistance/combined voltage calculating unit that performs an operation to select a pair of cells from the cells determined by the determining unit and to calculate a combined resistance and a combined voltage of the pair of cells when parallel-connected, for all combinations of the determined cells; and
a connection-allowable cell combination selecting unit that judges whether, when an assumption is made that, after parallel-connecting the pair of cells forming the cell combination, the other cell determined by the determining unit is further parallel-connected, such other cell that the inrush current flowing between the cells is less than or equal to a predetermined value is present or not, and selects a combination of the cell having been judged to be present as a connection-allowable cell combination, for all the cell combinations which have undergone the calculation of the combined resistance and the combined voltage,
and wherein
when judged that the variation of the internal resistance is greater than the threshold value by the internal resistance variation judging unit, the connection cell setting unit sets a cell combination to parallel-connect the cells from the connection-allowable cell combinations selected by the connection-allowable cell combination selecting unit.

4. The cell connection control device as claimed in claim 2 , wherein:
when judged that the variation of the internal resistance is greater than the threshold value by the internal resistance variation judging unit, the connection cell setting unit sets, as the cell combination to parallel-connect the cells, a cell having a lowest internal resistance and a cell having a second lowest internal resistance in the cells determined by the determining unit.

5. A cell connection system comprising:
a cell connection control device that sets a combination of cells when parallel-connecting a plurality of cells, the cell connection control device having:
a determining unit that determines a plurality of cells for parallel-connection of the cells;
an inrush current calculating unit that performs an operation to select a pair of cells from the cells determined by the determining unit and to calculate an inrush current flowing between the selected pair of cells when parallel-connected, for all combinations of the determined cells;
a judging unit that judges whether the inrush current calculated by the inrush current calculating unit is less than or equal to a predetermined upper limit current value or not, for all cell combinations which have undergone the calculation of the inrush current; and
a connection cell setting unit that sets, as a cell combination to parallel-connect the cells, a cell combination whose inrush current is the largest in the cell combinations which are judged that the inrush current is less than or equal to the upper limit current value by the judging unit; and

a cell connection device that parallel-connects the cells on the basis of the cell combination set by the cell connection control device.

6. The cell connection system as claimed in claim 5 , wherein:
the cell connection control device further has:
an internal resistance obtaining unit that obtains internal resistances of the plurality of cells determined by the determining unit; and
an internal resistance variation judging unit that calculates variation of the internal resistance on the basis of the internal resistances of the plurality of cells determined by the determining unit and judges whether the variation of the internal resistance is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold value or not,
and wherein
when judged that the variation of the internal resistance is less than or equal to the threshold value by the internal resistance variation judging unit, the connection cell setting unit sets, as the cell combination to parallel-connect the cells, a cell combination whose inrush current is the largest in the cell combinations which are judged that the inrush current is less than or equal to the upper limit current value by the judging unit.

7. The cell connection system as claimed in claim 6 , wherein:
the cell connection control device further has:
a combined resistance/combined voltage calculating unit that performs an operation to select a pair of cells from the cells determined by the determining unit and to calculate a combined resistance and a combined voltage of the pair of cells when parallel-connected, for all combinations of the determined cells; and
a connection-allowable cell combination selecting unit that judges whether, when an assumption is made that, after parallel-connecting the pair of cells forming the cell combination, the other cell determined by the determining unit is further parallel-connected, such other cell that the inrush current flowing between the cells is less than or equal to a predetermined value is present or not, and selects a combination of the cell having been judged to be present as a connection-allowable cell combination, for all the cell combinations which have undergone the calculation of the combined resistance and the combined voltage,
and wherein
when judged that the variation of the internal resistance is greater than the threshold value by the internal resistance variation judging unit, the connection cell setting unit sets a cell combination to parallel-connect the cells from the connection-allowable cell combinations selected by the connection-allowable cell combination selecting unit.

8. The cell connection system as claimed in claim 6 , wherein:
when judged that the variation

Assignees

• Nissan Motor

Inventors

• Matsuyama Chiduru
• Tsukamoto Yukari
• Fujita Takeshi

Classifications

• H01M10/482 Primary

  for several batteries or cells simultaneously or sequentially · CPC title

• H02J7/62

  against overcurrent · CPC title

• H02J1/082

  DC supplies with two or more different DC voltage levels · CPC title

• H02J1/10

  Parallel operation of DC sources · CPC title

• H01M2010/4271

  Battery management systems including electronic circuits, e.g. control of current or voltage to keep battery in healthy state, cell balancing · CPC title