Patent ID: 6388424
Filing Date: 2002-05-14
Classification: H02J

Abstract:
A cell shunt circuit for battery cells including a plurality of shunt circuit sections connected in parallel with the battery cells, respectively, which are connected in series with one another so as to be charged in a batch manner by a battery charger, each of said cell shunt circuit sections comprising:an energy reservoir acting as a bypass path for bypassing a charging current supplied to a corresponding one of said battery cells so as to be input to the following battery cell provided at a downstream side of said one battery cell so as to reserve surplus energy obtained from the charging current thus bypassed and regenerate the thus reserved surplus energy to a batch charging line connected with said serially connected battery cells; a switching element inserted in said bypass path for opening and closing thereof; and a comparator for making a comparison between a charging voltage across the corresponding one of said battery cells and a reference voltage and outputting a driving signal to said switching element when the charging voltage is greater than the reference voltage; wherein said energy reservoir regenerates said surplus energy to said batch charging line when said switching element opens said by-pass path.