• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.160-166
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• 2015

This study proposes an improved cell balancing circuit for fast equalization among lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries. A simple voltage sensorless charge balancing circuit has been proposed in the past. This cell balancing circuit automatically transfers energy from high-to low-voltage battery cells. However, the circuit requires a switch with low on-resistance because the balancing speed is limited by the on-resistance of the switch. Balancing speed decreases as the voltage difference among the battery cells decrease. In this study, the balancing speed of the cell balancing circuit is enhanced by using the auxiliary circuit, which boosts the balancing current. The charging current is determined by the nominal battery cell voltage and thus, the balancing speed is almost constant despite the very small voltage differences among the batteries. Simulation results are provided to verify the validity of the proposed cell balancing circuit.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.26 no.6_2
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• pp.1083-1095
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• 2023

Recently, the demand for low-voltage, high-capacity ESS is rapidly increasing due to the revitalization of the e-mobility industry, which is mainly powered by electricity. In addition, the demand for portable power banks is rapidly increasing due to the revitalization of leisure industries such as camping and fishing. The ESS with this structure consists of a small number of series cells and many parallel cells, resulting in a system with a large rated current. Therefore, the number of power devices for cell balancing configured in series is small, but a balancing device with a large current capacity is required. Construction of a constant temperature device in such a low-voltage, high-current ESS is difficult due to economic issues. The demand for an active balancing system that can solve the passive balancing heating problem is rapidly increasing. In this paper, propose a power feedback fly-back topology that can solve the balancing heating problem. The characteristic of the proposed topology is that a series-connected voltage sharing voltage is used as the input of the flyback converter, and the converter output is connected to one transformer. In this structure, the converter output for cell voltage balancing shares magnetic flux through one high-frequency transformer, so the cell voltage connected to the converter automatically converges to the same voltage.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2015.11a
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• pp.7-8
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• 2015

In this paper a cell-to-cell fast charge balancing circuit for the Lithium-Ion battery module is proposed. In the proposed topology the energy in a high voltage cell is transferred directly to a low voltage cell through the operation of the dc-dc converter. Furthermore, the charge balancing can be performed regardless of the battery operation whether it is being charged, discharged or relaxed. The monitoring circuit composed of a DSP and a battery monitoring IC is designed to monitor the cell voltage and detect the inferior cell thereby protecting the battery module from failure. In order to demonstrate the performance of the proposed topology, a prototype circuit was designed and applied to 12 Lithium-Ion battery module. It has been verified with the experiments that the charge equalization time of the proposed method was shorter compared with those of other methods.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.567-577
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• 2012

This paper introduces a new scheme to balance the DC bus voltages of a cascaded H-bridge converter which is used as a Distribution Static Synchronous Series Compensator (D-SSSC) in electrical distribution network. The aim of D-SSSC is to control the power flow between two feeders from different substations. As a result of different cell losses and capacitors tolerance the cells DC bus voltage can deviate from their reference values. In the proposed scheme, by individually modifying the reference PWM signal for each cell, an effective balancing procedure is derived. The new balancing procedure needs only the line current sign and is independent of the main control strategy, which controls the total DC bus voltages of cascaded H-bridge. The effect of modulation index variation on the capacitor voltage is analytically derived for the proposed strategy. The proposed method takes advantages of phase shift carrier based modulation and can be applied for a cascaded H-bridge with any number of cells. Also the system is immune to loss of one cell and the presented procedure can keep balancing between the remaining cells. Simulation studies and experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed method in the balancing of DC bus voltages.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.379-384
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• 2012

This paper presents the power source of wireless sensor node (WSN) using supercapacitors and a solar cell. Supercapacitors have high lifetime cycling compared to that of batteries. Supercapacitors are connected in series to achieve higher voltage and a voltage balancing circuit is required to ensure that no individual cell goes overvoltage. We employ an active balancing circuit that draws minimal current by using transistors. A diode is connected in series with each supercapacitor. A new balancing circuit that equalize the cells-voltage reduces energy consumption of supercapacitors. Voltage of operating WSN is applied 2.2-3.3V by DC/DC converter and supercapacitor voltage 2.2-5.1V. Maximum operating time of wireless sensor node is about 16 hours in full charging.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.367-376
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• 2016

This paper presents a cell balancing method for a single switch flyback converter with a multi-winding transformer. The conventional method using a flyback converter with a multi-winding transformer is simple and easy to control, but the voltage of each secondary winding coil might be non-uniform because of the unequal effective turn-ratio. In particular, it is difficult to control the non-uniform effect using turn-ratios because secondary coil has a limited number of turns. The non-uniform secondary voltages disturb the cell balancing procedure and induce an unbalance in cell voltages. Individual cell control by adding a switch for each cell can reduce the undesirable effect. However, the circuit becomes bulky, resulting in additional loss. The proposed method here uses the conventional flyback converter with an adjustment made to the output filters of the cells, instead of the additional switch. The magnitude of voltage applied to a particular cell can be reduced or increased according to the adjusted filter and the selected switching frequency. An analysis of the conventional converter configuration and the filter design method reveals the possibility of adequate cell balancing control without any additional switch on the secondary side.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.199-208
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• 2017

Lithium polymer batteries are used in energy storage systems (ESS), electric vehicles (EVs), etc. due to their high safety, fast charging and long lifecycle, and now they are used in agricultural drones. However, when overcharging and overdischarging, the lithium-polymer battery is destroyed in the gap structure in the lithium-ion battery and the battery life is reduced. In order to prevent overcharge and overdischarge, uneven cell voltage Cell balancing system is needed. In this paper, a fuzzy controller suitable for nonlinear systems is proposed by detecting the unbalanced cells by detecting the voltage difference between charging and discharging of each cell, and suggesting the applied cell balancing algorithm. In this paper, we have designed the cell balancing of the battery pack of agricultural drones by fuzzy control and it is designed for equal control between cells. As a final result, we checked whether cell balancing is good, and when there are two cells, Cell balancing was confirmed. We tested whether it could be used for other products. As a result, we confirmed that cell balancing is good regardless of the number of cells used.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.240-249
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• 2018

Individual DC voltage balance problem is an inherent issue for cascaded H-bridge (CHB) based converter. When the CHB-based static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) is operating at zero current mode, the software-based individual DC voltage balancing control techniques may not work because of the infinitesimal output current. However, the different power losses of each cell would lead to the individual DC voltages unbalance. The uneven power losses on the local supplied cell-controllers (including the control circuit and drive circuit) would especially cause the divergence of individual DC voltages, due to their characteristic as constant power loads. To solve this problem, this paper proposes an adaptive voltage balancing module which is designed in the cell-controller board with small size and low cost circuits. It is controlled to make the power loss of the cell a constant resistance load, thus the DC voltages are balanced in zero current mode. Field test in a 10kV STATCOM confirms the performance of the proposed method.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.188.1-188.1
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• 2012

인공위성에 사용되는 배터리 기술은 1960년대 최초로 사용된 니켈 카드뮴(NiCd)을 시작으로 발전하기 시작해서 현재는 리튬-이온(Li-Ion)에 이르렀다. 리튬-이온 배터리는 높은 Energy Density(작은 크기와 무게), 낮은 자가 방전율을 가짐과 동시에 메모리 효과가 거의 없다는 장점이 있다. 하지만 리튬-이온 배터리 팩의 성능(Voltage, Capacity, Lifetime)은 사용된 Cell간 특성차이(State of Charge, Total Capacity Difference, Internal Impedance)에 의해 제한된다. 일반적으로 배터리는 원하는 전압과 용량을 확보하기 위해 직렬-병렬 혹은 병렬-직렬 구조를 가지는 팩 형태로 제작 된다. Cell간 특성차이가 존재하는 상태에서 배터리 팩을 사용할 경우 특정 Cell의 과충전 및 과방전이 발생하며 이로 인해 수명이 단축될 수 있고 심한 경우 폭발이 발생할 수 도 있다. 또한 Cell간 특성차이는 배터리팩의 사용가능 용량을 제한하는 효과를 가져 온다. 본 논문에서는 Battery 팩을 구성하는 Cell들에 특성 차이가 존재할 경우 발생할 수 있는 Battery 팩의 수명 단축 및 용량 감소 Mechanism에 대해서 고찰한다. 또한 Cell간 특성차이를 극복하기 위해 실제 위성 운용에 적용될 수 있는 배터리팩의 Balancing 방안과 함께 위성에 장착을 위해 보관중인 4p12s Battery의 Balancing 방안에 대해 고찰하고 Balancing 전후의 Cell간 특성(Voltage Dispersion) 차이 측정결과를 보인다. 이렇게 본 논문에서 소개한 리튬-이온 배터리의 전반적인 Balancing 방안은 추후 인공위성에 적용되는 리튬-이온 배터리의 운용 및 보관에 Guide Line을 제시할 것이라고 판단한다.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.321-329
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• 2015

The static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) of cascaded H-bridge configuration accompanying multiple separate DC sides is inherently subject to the problem of uneven DC voltages. These DC voltages in one leg can be controlled by adjusting the AC-side output voltage of each cell inverter, which is proportional to the active power. However, when the phase current is extremely small, large AC-side voltage is required to generate the active power to balance the cell voltages. In this study, an alternative zero-sequence current injection method is proposed, which facilitates effective cell balancing controllers at no load, and has no effect on the power grid because the injected zero sequence current only flows within the STATCOM delta circuit. The performance of the proposed method is verified through simulation and experiments.