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Variable pulse recharging battery pack
| Details |
Inventors: Ranta, Craig S.; Nierescher, David S.; Swedenburg, Steven M.;
Assignee: Selfcharge, Inc. (Bellevue, WA)
Primary Examiner: Tso; Edward
Assistant Examiner:
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Christensen O'Connor Johnson & Kindness PLLC
A battery pack for an electrical device contains rechargeable batteries for supplying power to the electrical device and a transformerless pulse charging circuit. The pulse charging circuit generates a pulse charging current from received AC current, and charges the rechargeable batteries with the generated pulse charging current. A semiconductor switch (12) generates the pulse charging current from the received AC current and supplies the pulse charging current to the batteries. A ramp generator circuit (14) generates a linearly rising waveform beginning at each zero crossing of the rectified AC current. A current sense amplifier circuit (15) measures the average value of current pulses through the battery and generates a signal proportional to an average charging current. A triggering circuit (18) generates the gate firing pulses for the semiconductor switch (12) according to the linearly rising waveform and the average charging current amplifier waveform. |
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION In accordance with the present invention, a battery pack for an electrical device contains rechargeable batteries for supplying power to the electrical device and a transformerless pulse charging circuit for receiving an AC current from an external source, generating a pulse charging current from the received AC current, and pulse charging the battery with the generated pulse charging current.
In accordance with other aspects of the present invention, the rechargeable batteries are NiCd.
Pulse charging is very effective for charging certain quality NiCd batteries, especially the quality of NiCd batteries used in portable electronic products.
Also, pulse charging is effective for charging Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries.
In accordance with other aspects of the present invention, the charging circuit comprises a rectifier circuit for fully rectifying the received AC current, a semiconductor switch coupled to the rectifier circuit for generating the pulse charging current from the received AC current and supplies the pulse charging current to the nickel cadmium battery, a ramp generator circuit for generating a linearly rising waveform beginning at each zero crossing of the rectified AC current, a current sense amplifier circuit for measuring the average value of current pulses through the nickel cadmium battery and generating a signal proportional to an average charging current, and a triggering circuit for generating the gate firing pulses for the semiconductor switch according to the linearly rising waveform and the average charging current amplifier waveform.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a soft start circuit provides smooth start-up of the charging circuit.
In essence, the circuit gradually increases the charging pulses until reaching the full charging rate.
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