KR20160095752A - Multi-step charging device and multi-step charging method - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a multi-step charging device and to a multi-step charging method to shorten charging time. According to various embodiments of the present, the multi-step charging device includes: a charging amount measuring part for measuring the amount of charging of a battery in real time; a charging method setting part for setting a charging method of the battery according to the amount of charging; and a power applying part for supplying power to the battery based on the charging method.

Description

[0001] MULTI-STEP CHARGING DEVICE AND MULTI-STEP CHARGING METHOD [0002]

The present invention relates to a multi-step charging device and a multi-step charging method, and more particularly, to a charging method and a charging device capable of shortening a charging time.

Recently, interest in energy storage technology is increasing. Among them, the development of a secondary battery which can be easily charged and discharged has become a focus of attention. Among the secondary batteries currently in widespread use, the lithium ion battery has an advantage in that the operating voltage is higher and the energy density is much higher than that of a conventional secondary battery such as a Ni-MH, Ni-Cd or sulfuric acid-lead battery using an aqueous electrolyte It is getting popular in various fields.

With this trend, lithium ion batteries are mostly applied to portable electronic devices such as smart phones. However, portable electronic devices such as smart phones tend to have higher power consumption as their functions become higher. For example, the tendency is that the size of a display panel for a smart phone tends to be increased from 3 inches to 5 inches or more, multitasking becomes more common in a smartphone OS, and the communication method shifts from 3G to 4G .

In response, manufacturers of various lithium ion batteries have been accelerating the technology of increasing the capacity of the battery and of shortening the charging time. However, with the miniaturization and thinness of portable electronic devices, it is difficult to increase the charging capacity drastically while maintaining the size of the lithium ion battery.

On the other hand, in order to charge the lithium ion battery, it is common to use a constant current-constant voltage (CC-CV) charging method. The constant current-constant voltage charging method is a method of charging the battery with a constant current for a certain period of time, and charging the battery with a constant voltage when the battery reaches a charging level of a predetermined voltage.

The various embodiments of the present invention provide a multi-step charging device that achieves a shorter charging time by dividing the charging method into a predetermined number of steps and applying a suitable charging method according to the charging amount of the secondary battery.

A multi-step charging apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a charging amount measuring unit for measuring a charging value of a battery in real time, a charging mode setting unit for setting a charging mode for the battery in accordance with the charging value, And a power application unit for supplying power to the battery based on the power supply unit.

Further, the charging mode setting unit of the multi-step charging apparatus according to various embodiments of the present invention can set the battery to be charged to a constant current with the first current value when the charging value of the battery is smaller than the first charging value, The battery can be set to be charged to a constant current with a second current value if the battery charge is greater than or equal to the first charge value and less than the second charge value, Current charging with a third current value. When the charging value is equal to or higher than the third charging value, the battery can be charged to a constant voltage until the battery is fully charged.

At this time, the second charge value is larger than the first charge value, and the third charge value is larger than the second charge value. Also, the second current value is smaller than the first current value, and the third current value is smaller than the second current value.

In addition, the charging mode setting unit of the multi-step charging apparatus according to various embodiments of the present invention may charge the battery at a constant current when the charging value of the battery is smaller than the first charging value, The battery is charged at a constant current with a second current value lower than the first current value when the battery reaches the first charge value and the third current value is lower than the second current value when the charge value reaches the second charge value, The battery is charged with a constant current, and when the charged value of the battery reaches the third charging value, the battery is set to be charged at a constant voltage.

According to the multi-step charging apparatus or method according to various embodiments of the present invention, the charging time can be shortened compared with the conventional charging method. Particularly, when the present invention is applied to the step of fully charging the battery in the manufacturing process, the production efficiency can be further increased.

1 is a view showing a multi-step charging apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a view showing a multi-step charging method according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a graph showing a result of a multi-step charging method according to a specific embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a graph showing a comparison between the results of a multi-step charging method and a conventional charging method according to a specific embodiment of the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The present invention is capable of various modifications and various embodiments, and specific embodiments are illustrated in the drawings and described in detail in the detailed description. It is to be understood, however, that the invention is not to be limited to the specific embodiments, but includes all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The terminology used in this application is used only to describe a specific embodiment and is not intended to limit the invention. The singular expressions include plural expressions unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. In the present application, the terms "comprises" or "having" and the like are used to specify that there is a feature, a number, a step, an operation, an element, a component or a combination thereof described in the specification, But do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, or combinations thereof.

1 is a view showing a multi-step charging apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, a multi-step charging apparatus 1000 according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a charged amount measuring unit 101, a charging mode setting unit 103, and a power applying unit 105. Although not shown, the multi-step charging apparatus 1000 may further include, in addition to the configuration shown in FIG. 1, for example, a control unit for controlling each unit of the multi-step charging apparatus 1000, a power input unit receiving power, and the like. Meanwhile, the battery 10 is a battery to be charged by the multi-step charging apparatus 1000, and the power source 20 is a power source of electric power supplied by the multi-step charging apparatus 1000.

The charged amount measuring unit 101 can measure the charged amount (state of charge) of the battery 10 in real time. At this time, the charge value may represent a specific charge amount in mAh or Ah, or a percentage of the battery 10 to the rated charge capacity. However, unless otherwise specified, the charge value will be described as a percentage of the rated charge capacity of the battery 10 to be charged.

The charging mode setting unit 103 can set a charging mode for the battery 10 according to the charging value measured by the charging amount measuring unit 101. [ That is, the charging mode setting unit 103 can adjust the voltage or the current of the charging power supplied to the battery 10 in accordance with the charging value of the battery 10. More specifically, the charging mode setting unit 103 adjusts the voltage or current of the electric power supplied to the battery 10 so that the electric power applying unit 103 charges the constant current (CC) or the constant voltage (CV) It is possible to control the charging to be performed.

According to one embodiment, when the charging value of the battery 10 is smaller than the first charging value, the charging type setting unit 103 can set the battery 10 to be charged with a constant current at the first current value, The battery 10 can be set to be charged to a constant current at a second current value when the first charge value is greater than the first charge value and smaller than the second charge value, The battery 10 can be set to be charged at a constant voltage until the battery 10 is fully charged if the charge value is equal to or greater than the third charge value (at this time, the first charge value < The charge value of the battery 10 is 95% of the rated charge capacity, and the second charge value is the third charge value and the first current value> the second current value> the third current value) It may mean that it falls within the range of 100% to 100%.

Since the charging amount measuring unit 101 can measure the charging value of the battery 10 in real time, when the battery 10 is charged, the constant current charging processes by the charging mode setting unit 103, The charging process can be performed continuously.

In a specific embodiment, the first current value may be 1.7C. The unit 'C' is also called a C-rate, and may be a current value required to fully charge a battery having a predetermined rated charging capacity for one hour. For example, in a battery 10 of 1000 mAh, 1C may mean 1A. Therefore, when the battery 10 has a rated charging capacity of 2300 mAh, the first current value of 1.7 C may have a value of about 4A. Similarly, when the battery 10 has a charging capacity of 2300 mAh, the second current value may be 1.1C (about 2.6A), and the third current value may be 0.7C (about 1.6A).

Each of the first to third current values is preferably set to be less than the deterioration threshold current value corresponding to the charge value. The deterioration threshold current value may mean a current value at which a high current is applied to the battery or performance deterioration due to heat generation may occur. The deterioration threshold current value is a value based on the charge value of the battery, and may be a value previously obtained by repeated experiments.

The first charging value is 20% of the charging capacity of the battery 10, the second charging value is 50% of the charging capacity of the battery 10, and the third charging value is the battery 10 ) &Lt; / RTI &gt; The respective values of the first to third charge values are not limited to the above values.

On the other hand, the constant current charging may be the charging and supplying of the constant current electric power to the battery 10 up to a predetermined set voltage. While the constant current charging is being performed, the voltage of the battery 10 may rise together with the charged amount (or charging value) of the battery 10. [ That is, as the charging progresses, the voltage of the battery 10 rises and can reach the predetermined set voltage. The set voltage can be set based on the charging value of the battery 10 to be charged. For example, in a lithium ion battery having a rated voltage of 4.2 V, 3.9 V can be set to a set voltage when the charging value of the lithium ion battery is 20%. That is, switching to the charging mode of completion of the constant current charging and the next step can be performed based on the charging value of the battery 10. When performing a plurality of constant current charging, each constant current charging may have a corresponding set voltage for each.

The constant-voltage charging may be charging while reducing the charging current to maintain the set voltage when the voltage of the battery 10 reaches the set voltage by performing the immediately previous constant-current charging. For example, in a lithium ion battery having a rated voltage of 4.2 V, if the voltage of the lithium ion battery reaches the set voltage of 4.35 V due to the immediately previous constant current charging, the constant current charging is reduced to 4.35 V It can be charging.

The power application unit 105 can supply power to the battery 10 based on the charging mode (voltage or current of charging power) set in the charging mode setting unit 103. [ The power applying section 105 may be implemented, for example, including an AC / DC converter circuit, a smoothing capacitor circuit, a transformer circuit, and the like.

The battery 10 is a battery to be charged in the multi-step charging apparatus 1000 according to various embodiments of the present invention. The battery 10 may be a secondary battery, for example, a lithium ion battery or a lithium polymer battery.

The power supply 20 supplies power to the multi-step charging apparatus 1000 according to various embodiments of the present invention so that the multi-step charging apparatus 1000 can charge the battery 10. [ The power source 20 may be, for example, a single-phase AC power source of 220V-60Hz for home use or a 380V-60Hz three-phase AC power source for industrial use.

The configuration of the multi-step charging apparatus 1000 according to various embodiments of the present invention is as described above. Hereinafter, a multi-step charging method according to various embodiments will be described with reference to FIG.

2 is a flow chart illustrating a multi-step charging method in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

A multi-step charging method according to various embodiments of the present invention includes: an operation of measuring a charging value of a battery in real time; an operation of setting a charging mode to the battery in accordance with the charging value; As shown in FIG.

2, the multi-step charging method according to one embodiment includes an operation (S201) of measuring the charged value of the battery 10 by the charged amount measuring unit 101, and an operation (S202, S203, S204) of determining whether the charge value of the battery 10 is smaller than the first, second, and third charge values.

In operation S201, the charge amount measuring unit 101 is described as one operation for measuring the charge value of the battery 10. [ However, it is preferable that the charged amount measuring unit 101 can measure the charged value of the battery 10 in real time in order to control the flexible charging method.

Also, although the charging amount determination in steps S202, S203, and S204 is shown to be performed sequentially, it is not limited to this determination order. Rather, since determination of the charge value of the battery 10 can be measured in real time, the charge amount determination of the operations S202, S203, and S204 can also be determined in real time.

If the charge value of the battery 10 is smaller than the first charge value by the determination operations S202, S203, and S204, the charge mode setting unit 103 causes the power applying unit 105 to set the first current value to the battery 10 The battery 10 is charged with a constant current (S206) at a second current value lower than the first current value when the charge value of the battery 10 reaches the first charge value (S206) The battery 10 is charged with a constant current at a third current value lower than the second current value at step S207. If the charge value of the battery 10 reaches the third charge value, It can be controlled so as to be charged at a constant voltage.

In a specific embodiment, the first current value is about 1.7 C (about 4 A when the battery 10 has a rated charging capacity of 2300 mAh), the second current value is about 1.1 C (the battery 10 has a charging capacity of 2300 mAh , And the third current value may be 0.7C (about 1.6A when the battery 10 has a rated charging capacity of 2300mAh).

Each of the first to third current values is preferably set to be less than the deterioration threshold current value corresponding to the charge value. The deterioration threshold current value may mean a current value at which a high current is applied to the battery or performance deterioration due to heat generation may occur. The deterioration threshold current value is a value based on the charge value of the battery, and may be a value previously obtained by repeated experiments.

As described above, the first charge value is 20% of the charge capacity of the battery 10, the second charge value is 50% of the charge capacity of the battery 10, the third charge value is the charge amount of the battery 10, Of the charging capacity of the battery. The respective values of the first to third charge values are not limited to the above values.

On the other hand, when the charge value measured by the charge amount measuring unit 101 is equal to or larger than the first charge value and smaller than the second charge value, the charge mode setting unit 103 causes the power applying unit 105 to perform the above- To S208.

When the charge value measured by the charge amount measuring unit 101 is equal to or larger than the second charge value and smaller than the third charge value, the charge mode setting unit 103 causes the power applying unit 105 to perform the above- And S208.

When the measured charge value is equal to or greater than the third charge value, the charging mode setting unit 103 can control the power applying unit 105 to perform the above-described operation S208 have. The constant voltage (CV) charging in operation S208 can be performed until the battery 10 is fully charged. At this time, the charging value of the battery 10 at full charge may be in the range of 95% to 100% of the rated charging capacity of the battery.

3 is a graph showing a result of a multi-step charging method according to a specific embodiment of the present invention.

3, the charging rate graph 310 refers to the left label, and the current graph 320 of the electric power supplied to the battery 10 refers to the label on the right side.

The battery 10 to which the multi-step charging method according to the specific embodiment of the present invention is applied has a capacity of 2300 mAh, and the charging value at the beginning (that is, when the time is '0') is 0%. Accordingly, the multi-step charging apparatus 1000 can sequentially apply the operations S205 to S208 of FIG. 2 to the battery 10. [

In step S205, the battery 10 is charged to about 4A (first current value) until its charge value reaches 20% of the charge capacity of the battery 10 (first charge value) . When the charge value reaches 20% (the first charge value), the battery 10 is charged to about 2.6 (second charge value) until the charge value reaches 50% (the second charge value) A (second current value). Then, when the charging value reaches 50% (the second charging value), the battery 10 is operated by the operation S207 until the charging value reaches 80% of the charging capacity (the third charging value) Current is charged to about 1.6 A (third current value). When the charging value reaches 80% (the third charging value), the battery 10 is charged at constant voltage until the battery 10 is fully charged by the operation S208.

4 shows a graph comparing the results of a multi-step charging method and a conventional charging method according to a specific embodiment of the present invention.

4 shows a charging rate graph 410 in the case where the battery 10 is charged according to the multi-step charging method according to the specific embodiment of the present invention and the same battery 10 charged in accordance with the conventional CC-CV charging method Charge rate graph 420 is shown. According to FIG. 4, the charging times when the filling rates were 50% and 80%, respectively, were measured as shown in the following table.

Charge rate Time (minutes) In graph 410, In the graph 420, 50% 20 32 80% 44 50

As can be seen from Table 1, according to the multi-step charging method according to the specific embodiment of the present invention, the charging time of about 6 minutes is shortened based on the charging rate of about 12 minutes and 80% based on the charging rate of 50% can do.

According to the multi-step charging method according to various embodiments of the present invention, the charging time can be shortened compared with the conventional charging method. Particularly, when the present invention is applied to the step of fully charging the battery in the manufacturing process, the production efficiency can be further increased.

The embodiments described herein are not intended to limit the scope of the invention in any way. Also, unless stated otherwise such as &quot; essential &quot;, &quot; importantly &quot;, etc., it may not be a necessary component for application of the present invention.

The use of the terms &quot; above &quot; and similar indication words in the specification of the present invention (particularly in the claims) may refer to both singular and plural. In addition, in the present invention, when a range is described, it includes the invention to which the individual values belonging to the above range are applied (unless there is contradiction thereto), and each individual value constituting the above range is described in the detailed description of the invention The same. Finally, if there is no explicit description or contradiction to the operations constituting the method according to the invention, the operations can be done in the proper order. The present invention is not limited to the order of description of the above operations. The use of all examples or exemplary language (e.g., etc.) in this invention is for the purpose of describing the present invention only in detail and is not to be limited by the scope of the claims, It is not. It will also be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various modifications, combinations, and alterations may be made depending on design criteria and factors within the scope of the appended claims or equivalents thereof.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. The present invention is not limited to the drawings.

10: Battery
20: Power supply
101:
103: Charging method setting unit
105:
1000: Multi-step charging device

Claims (14)

A charge amount measuring unit for measuring a charge value of the battery in real time;
A charging mode setting unit for setting a charging mode for the battery according to the charging value; And
And a power applying unit for supplying power to the battery based on the charging mode. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the charging mode setting unit sets the constant current to charge the battery at a first current value when the charge value is smaller than the first charge value. The method of claim 2,
Wherein the charging mode setting unit sets the battery to a constant current charging at a second current value when the charging value is equal to or greater than the first charging value and less than the second charging value,
Wherein the second charge value is larger than the first charge value, and the second current value is smaller than the first current value. The method of claim 3,
Wherein the charging mode setting unit sets the battery to a constant current charging at a third current value when the charging value is equal to or greater than the second charging value and less than the third charging value,
Wherein the third charge value is larger than the second charge value, and the third current value is smaller than the second current value. The method of claim 4,
Wherein the charging mode setting unit sets the constant-voltage charging of the battery until the battery is fully charged when the charging value is equal to or higher than the third charging value. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the charging mode setting unit sets the charging current to a first current value when the charging value of the battery is less than the first charging value and charges the battery at a constant current when the charging value of the battery reaches the first charging value, Current charging the battery with a second current value lower than the second current value when the charging value of the battery reaches the second charging value, And when the battery reaches the third charging value, the battery is set to be charged at a constant voltage. The method of claim 2,
Wherein the first current value is set to be less than a deterioration threshold current value corresponding to the charge value. An operation of measuring the charge value of the battery in real time;
Setting a charging mode for the battery according to the charging value; And
And supplying power to the battery based on the charging method. The method of claim 8,
Wherein the operation of setting the charging mode includes setting the constant current to charge the battery at a first current value when the charge value is smaller than the first charge value. The method of claim 9,
Wherein the operation of setting the charging mode further comprises setting the constant current charging of the battery to the second current value when the charging value is equal to or greater than the first charging value and less than the second charging value,
Wherein the second charge value is greater than the first charge value and the second current value is less than the first current value. The method of claim 10,
Wherein the operation of setting the charging mode further comprises setting the constant current charging of the battery to the third current value when the charging value is equal to or higher than the second charging value and smaller than the third charging value,
Wherein the third charge value is larger than the second charge value, and the third current value is smaller than the second current value. The method of claim 11,
Further comprising the step of setting the charging mode to charge the battery to a constant voltage until the battery is fully charged if the charging value is equal to or higher than the third charging value. The method of claim 8,
The method of claim 1, wherein the setting of the charging mode comprises: charging the battery with a first current value when the charging value of the battery is less than the first charging value; and when the charging value of the battery reaches the first charging value, 1 current value, and when the charge value of the battery reaches the second charge value, the battery is charged at a constant current with a third current value lower than the second current value, And charging the battery to a constant voltage when the charging value of the battery reaches the third charging value. The method of claim 9,
Wherein the first constant current is set to be less than a deterioration threshold current value corresponding to the charge value.

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