Charge equalization apparatus and method

• Main Authors: OH JEON KEUN, MOON GUN WOO, PARK HONG SUN, JANG SOO YEUP, KIM CHONG EUN, LEE JOONG HUI
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 10.07.2012
• Subjects: CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS OR SYSTEMS FOR SUPPLYING OR DISTRIBUTINGELECTRIC POWER; CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TOTRANSPORTATION; CONVERSION OR DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRIC POWER; ELECTRIC EQUIPMENT OR PROPULSION OF ELECTRICALLY-PROPELLEDVEHICLES; ELECTRICITY; ELECTRODYNAMIC BRAKE SYSTEMS FOR VEHICLES, IN GENERAL; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERATION; MAGNETIC SUSPENSION OR LEVITATION FOR VEHICLES; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; SYSTEMS FOR STORING ELECTRIC ENERGY; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS; TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINSTCLIMATE CHANGE; TRANSPORTING; VEHICLES IN GENERAL

The present invention relates, in general, to a battery voltage equalization apparatus and method, and, more particularly, to a charge equalization apparatus and method, which decrease the withstand voltages of semiconductor switching elements while maintaining charge equalization performance, thus making it easy to implement the secondary windings of transformers while reducing the costs of the charge equalization apparatus. The charge equalization apparatus includes N first transformers (T1 to Tn) connected in series with N series-connected batteries (B1 to Bn) and adapted to decrease voltages of overcharged batteries among the N batteries. A charge storage device (Cdump) stores energy supplied from the first transformers. A second transformer (TS) redistributes energy stored in the charge storage device to the N series-connected batteries. A voltage detection and drive signal generation unit (20) detects voltages of N respective series-connected batteries, and generates a first drive signal and a second drive signal.