• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.393-400
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• 2012

The modularized equalizers normally use additional components among the modules in the long series-connected lithium-ion battery string. In these approaches, the overall systems are heavy, bulky, and high-priced. Furthermore, the losses related to additional components decrease the system efficiency. To avoid these problems, a modularized equalizer, which has no additional components among the modules, is required. This paper proposes a novel control scheme using the magnetizing energy of the multi-winding transformer for the module equalization. In this scheme, the high duty cycle is applied to the module where the voltage is higher than the reference voltage and the low duty cycle is applied to the module where the voltage is lower than the reference voltage. Due to the different duty cycle, more electric charges are transferred from high voltage module to the low voltage module during the turn-off switching interval. Using the proposed control scheme, the equalizer system does not suffer from the size, cost, and loss related to the modularization. The experimental results are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed modularized equalizer.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.343-352
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• 2007

This paper proposes a modularized charge equalization converter for hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) lithium-ion battery cells, in which the intra-module and the inter-module equalizer are Implemented. Considering the high voltage HEV battery pack, over approximately 300V, the proposed equalization circuit modularizes the entire $M^*N$ cells; in other words, M modules in the string and N cells in each module. With this modularization, low voltage stress on all the electronic devices, below roughly 64V, can be obtained. In the intra-module equalization, a current-fed DC/DC converter with cell selection switches is employed. By conducting these selection switches, concentrated charging of the specific under charged cells can be performed. On the other hand, the inter-module equalizer makes use of a voltage-fed DC/DC converter for bi-directional equalization. In the proposed circuit, these two converters can share the MOSFET switch so that low cost and small size can be achieved. In addition, the absence of any additional reset circuitry in the inter-module equalizer allows for further size reduction, concurrently conducting the multiple cell selection switches allows for shorter equalization time, and employing the optimal power rating design rule allows fur high power density to be obtained. Experimental results of an implemented prototype show that the proposed equalization scheme has the promised cell balancing performance for the 7Ah HEV lithium-ion battery string while maintaining low voltage stress, low cost, small size, and short equalization time.