The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 22, 2013
Filed:
Aug. 31, 2009
Jason Wortham, Fremont, CA (US);
Urs Mader, Cupertino, CA (US);
Jason Wortham, Fremont, CA (US);
Urs Mader, Cupertino, CA (US);
Maxim Integrated Products, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
Voltage balancing in multi-cell battery packs is improved by estimating instantaneous voltages on the cells. In accordance with one embodiment, an apparatus for reading voltages from multiple voltage sources includes a first multiplexer coupled to multiple voltage sources and a controller. The controller is programmed to output from the first multiplexer a sequential pair of voltages read from each of the multiple voltage sources. The multiple sequential pairs of voltages all have a common midpoint in time. The multiple sequential pairs of voltages are all read within a small time window, such as 100 microseconds. In one embodiment, the multiple voltage sources are Li-ion or other high-voltage cells, though other types of cells can also be used.