RECHARGING DEVICE AND RECHARGING METHOD

• Main Authors: MARUYAMA TOMOMI, SAIKI EIJI, HONDA YOSHIHIRO, KATO AKITOSHI
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; Korean
• Published: 23.11.2010
• Subjects: BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS OR SYSTEMS FOR SUPPLYING OR DISTRIBUTINGELECTRIC POWER; CONVERSION OR DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRIC POWER; ELECTRICITY; GENERATION; PROCESSES OR MEANS, e.g. BATTERIES, FOR THE DIRECT CONVERSIONOF CHEMICAL INTO ELECTRICAL ENERGY; SYSTEMS FOR STORING ELECTRIC ENERGY

The present invention aims to suppress waste of charging power during charging and improve charging efficiency. A charging apparatus 1 for charging a cell group 24, in which a plurality of secondary cells 22 are connected in series, by supplying a charging current Ic to the secondary cells 22 is provided with an overcharge protection circuit 26 including discharge route circuits 34 provided to each of the secondary cells 22 and adapted to cause the secondary cells 22 to discharge during charging by connecting the secondary cells 22 to the discharge route circuits 34 based on cell voltages Vb of the secondary cells 22 or to stop discharging by cutting off the secondary cells 22 from the discharge route circuits 34; and a charger controller 10 for continuing charging while reducing the charging current Ic until the discharge of the secondary cell 22 having started discharging to the discharge route circuit 34 is stopped when the discharge of any one of the secondary cells 22 to the discharge route circuit 34 is started by the overcharge protection circuit 26.