Patent Description:
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for diagnosing a battery for detecting an abnormal voltage drop phenomenon during charging of a battery cell.

Recently, research and development on a secondary battery are being actively conducted. Here, the secondary battery is a battery capable of charging and discharging, and is meant to include all of a conventional Ni/Cd battery, Ni/MH battery, etc. and a recent lithium ion battery. Among the secondary batteries, the lithium ion battery has an advantage of having much higher energy density compared to the conventional Ni/Cd battery, Ni/MH battery, etc. In addition, the lithium ion battery can be manufactured in a small size and light weight, and thus the lithium ion battery is used as a power source for a mobile device. In addition, the lithium ion battery can be manufactured in a small size and light weight, and thus the lithium ion battery is used as a power source for a mobile device. In addition, the lithium ion battery is attracting attention as a next-generation energy storage medium as its range of use has been expanded to a power source for an electric vehicle.

In addition, the secondary battery is generally used as a battery pack including a battery module in which a plurality of battery cells are connected in series and/or in parallel. In addition, a state and operation of the battery pack are managed and controlled by a battery management system.

In the case of such a secondary battery, an abnormal voltage drop phenomenon suspected of an internal short may be observed during a charging cycle. In order to diagnose such an abnormal voltage drop, a method of detecting whether or not a voltage decreases by measuring a voltage of a battery is used. However, according to this method, when the voltage drop due to the internal short of the battery occurs over the entire section, the voltage drop phenomenon can be detected, but there is a problem that detection is impossible when the voltage drop occurs instantaneously.

<CIT> relates to an apparatus that, by is configured to find a voltage difference ΔV between the maximum value and the minimum value of voltage of each cell constituting a battery set and then combine the voltage difference ΔV with current I passing through the battery set into a value pair. The plurality of the value pairs are stored and the relationship between the voltage difference ΔV and the current I is a relation represented by a straight line with the slope ΔR thereof corresponding to an internal-resistance difference.

An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for diagnosing a battery capable of accurately and easily detecting an abnormal voltage drop due to an internal short during charging of a battery by using a fitting equation for the voltage of the battery.

An apparatus according to claim <NUM> is provided in a first aspect.

A method according to claim <NUM> is provided in a second aspect.

According to the apparatus and method for diagnosing the battery of the present invention, it is possible to accurately and easily detect an abnormal voltage drop phenomenon due to an internal short during charging of a battery by using a fitting equation for a voltage of the battery.

Hereinafter, various embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In this document, the same reference numerals are used for the same constituent elements in the drawings, and duplicate descriptions for the same constituent elements are omitted.

With respect to the various embodiments of the present invention disclosed in this document, specific structural or functional descriptions have been exemplified for the purpose of describing the embodiments of the present invention only, and various embodiments of the present invention may be embodied in various forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiments described in this document.

Expressions such as "first", "second", "firstly", or "secondly", etc. used in various embodiments may modify various constituent elements regardless of order and/or importance, and do not limit corresponding constituent elements. For example, without deviating from the scope of the present invention, a first constituent element may be named as a second constituent element, and similarly, the second constituent element may also be renamed as the first constituent element.

The terms used in this document are only used to describe a specific embodiment, and may not be intended to limit the scope of other embodiments. Singular expressions may include plural expressions unless they are clearly meant differently in the context.

All terms used herein, including technical or scientific terms, may have the same meaning as generally understood by a person having an ordinary skill in the technical field of the present invention. Terms defined in a generally used dictionary may be interpreted as having the same or similar meaning as the meaning in the context of the related technology, and are not to be interpreted as an ideal or excessively formal meaning unless explicitly defined in this document. In some cases, even terms defined in this document cannot be interpreted to exclude embodiments of the present invention.

<FIG> is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a battery control system.

Referring to <FIG>, a battery management system including a battery pack <NUM> and an upper-level controller <NUM> included in an upper-level system according to an embodiment of the present invention is schematically illustrated.

As illustrated in <FIG>, the battery pack <NUM> includes a battery module <NUM> composed of one or more battery cells and capable of charging and discharging, a switching unit <NUM> connected in series to a positive terminal side or a negative terminal side of the battery module <NUM> to control a charge and discharge current flow of the battery module <NUM>, and a battery management system <NUM> that monitors a voltage, current, temperature, etc. of the battery pack <NUM> to control and manage the battery module <NUM> to prevent over-charging, over-discharging, etc..

Here, the switching unit <NUM> is a semiconductor switching element for controlling a current flow for charging or discharging of the battery module <NUM>, and, for example, at least one MOSFET may be used.

In addition, the BMS <NUM> may measure or calculate a voltage and current of a gate, source, and drain of the semiconductor switching element in order to monitor the voltage, current, temperature, etc. of the battery pack <NUM>, and may measure the current, voltage, temperature, etc. of the battery pack using a sensor <NUM> provided adjacent to the semiconductor switching element <NUM>. The BMS <NUM> is an interface that receives values obtained by measuring various parameters described above, and may include a plurality of terminals and a circuit connected to these terminals to perform processing for input values.

In addition, the BMS <NUM> may control ON/OFF of the switching element <NUM>, for example, a MOSFET, and may be connected to the battery module <NUM> to monitor a state of the battery module <NUM>.

The upper-level controller <NUM> may transmit a control signal for the battery module to the BMS <NUM>. Accordingly, an operation of the BMS <NUM> may be controlled based on a signal applied from the upper-level controller. The battery cell of the present invention may be configured to be included in a battery pack used in an energy storage system (ESS) or a vehicle, etc. However, it is not limited to these uses.

Since the configuration of the battery pack <NUM> and the configuration of the BMS <NUM> are known configurations, a more detailed description thereof will be omitted.

<FIG> is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an apparatus for diagnosing a battery according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to <FIG>, an apparatus <NUM> for diagnosing a battery according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a voltage measurement unit <NUM>, a fitting equation calculation unit <NUM>, a diagnostic unit <NUM>, and may include a memory unit <NUM>, and an alarm unit <NUM>.

The voltage measurement unit <NUM> measures the voltage of the battery cell. In this case, the voltage measurement unit <NUM> may measure the voltage of the battery cell at predetermined time intervals.

The fitting equation calculating unit <NUM> calculates a fitting equation for the voltage of the battery cell. In this case, the fitting equation calculated by the fitting equation calculation unit <NUM> may be a model voltage representing a voltage profile of the battery cell. For example, the fitting equation may be an exponential equation. In addition, the fitting equation calculation unit <NUM> may calculate the fitting equation by least square estimation. However, this is only exemplary, and the present invention is not limited thereto, and the fitting equation calculation unit <NUM> may calculate the fitting equation in various ways.

The fitting equation calculation unit <NUM> may calculate a fitting equation for a voltage in a rest section during which a voltage drop phenomenon due to an internal short of the battery occurs after charging of the battery cell is completed.

The diagnostic unit <NUM> diagnoses whether or not the battery cell is abnormal based on the fitting equation for the voltage of the battery cell calculated by the fitting equation calculation unit <NUM>. Specifically, when a difference between the voltage of the battery cell measured by the voltage measurement unit <NUM> and the voltage according to the fitting equation calculated by the approximation calculation unit <NUM> is greater than or equal to a preset reference value, the diagnostic unit <NUM> determines that the battery is abnormal. In this case, the reference value may be set based on a predetermined measurement error value of the voltage measurement unit <NUM>.

The memory unit <NUM> may store the voltage of the battery cell measured by the voltage measurement unit <NUM> and the fitting equation for the voltage of the battery cell calculated by the approximation calculation unit <NUM>. In this case, the memory unit <NUM> may be included in the apparatus <NUM> for diagnosing the battery, and may be included in an external server (not illustrated) to transmit and receive data to and from the apparatus <NUM> for diagnosing the battery through a separate communication module.

The alarm unit <NUM> may generate a warning alarm when it is determined that an abnormality has occurred in the battery cell by the diagnostic unit <NUM>. In this case, the warning alarm may be provided in the form of a message on a display unit (not illustrated), or may be provided as light or sound signals.

As described above, according to the apparatus for diagnosing the battery according to an embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to accurately and easily detect the abnormal voltage drop phenomenon due to the internal short during charging of the battery by using the fitting equation for the voltage of the battery cell.

<FIG> is a graph illustrating a voltage change when the voltage drop due to the internal short of the battery cell occurs over an entire section, and <FIG> is a graph illustrating the voltage change when the voltage drop due to the internal short of the battery cell occurs temporarily. Here, the horizontal axis of <FIG> and <FIG> represents time (seconds), and the vertical axis thereof represents voltage (V) of the battery.

Referring to <FIG>, it may be seen that, for the case of the <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM>-th charging cycles, the voltage drop due to the internal short of the battery cell in the rest section after charging of the battery gradually appears over the entire section.

In addition, referring to <FIG>, it may be seen that, for the case of the <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM>-th charging cycles, the voltage drop due to the internal short of the battery cell in the rest section after charging of the battery occurs temporarily in the section of about <NUM> seconds, section of about <NUM> seconds, etc..

<FIG> is a graph illustrating an end of charge (EOC) when the voltage drop due to the internal short of the battery cell occurs over the entire section, and <FIG> is a graph illustrating the EOC when the voltage drop due to the internal short of the battery cell occurs temporarily;.

The upper graph of <FIG> illustrates a voltage change in the end of charge (EOC) (vertical axis) with respect to the number of charging cycles (horizontal axis) of the battery, and the lower graph of <FIG> illustrates a change in the EOC (vertical axis) with respect to the number of charging cycles (horizontal axis) of the battery.

As illustrated in <FIG>, when the voltage drop due to the internal short of the battery cell occurs over the entire section, it may be seen that an abrupt voltage drop appears in the EOC as well. That is, referring to the lower graph of <FIG>, it may be seen that the voltage drop phenomenon appears in the sections (shaded portions) of <FIG>) in which the numbers of charging cycles are <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM>.

Meanwhile, the upper graph of <FIG> illustrates the voltage change in EOC (end of charge) (vertical axis) with respect to the number of charging cycles (horizontal axis) of the battery, and the lower graph of <FIG> illustrates the EOC change (vertical axis) with respect to the number of charging cycles (horizontal axis) of the battery.

As illustrated in <FIG>, when the voltage drop due to the internal short of the battery cell occurs temporarily and it is recovered again after an instantaneous voltage drop, it is impossible to detect the voltage drop due to the internal short using only the EOC.

<FIG> is a graph illustrating an actual rest voltage for about <NUM> minutes after charging of the battery, a voltage according to a fitting equation, and a difference value therebetween. In this case, the horizontal axis of <FIG> represents time (seconds), the vertical axis (left) represents voltage (V) of the battery, and the vertical axis (right) represents a difference value Verror(mV) between the actual measured voltage of the battery and the voltage according to the fitting equation.

The fitting equation of the battery voltage in <FIG> is derived through the least square estimation. In this case, the fitting equation of the battery voltage can be expressed as follows.

In the apparatus for diagnosing the battery according to an embodiment of the present invention, the fitting equation of the battery voltage may be completed by respectively computing constants a, b, and c of the above equation. However, the above equation is only illustrated as an example, and the present invention is not limited thereto, and various equations capable of making the voltage of the battery fir may be used.

Referring to <FIG>, a difference value between an actual measured rest voltage (raw) of the battery and a voltage (Exp. fitting) according to the fitting equation is represented as | Verror| in the center of the graph. By calculating the difference value between the actual measured voltage of the battery and the voltage according to the fitting equation and comparing the difference value with a reference value, the voltage drop due to the internal short in the rest section of the battery may be detected.

<FIG> illustrates a result of detecting, by the apparatus for diagnosing the battery according to an embodiment of the present invention, that the voltage drop due to the internal short of the battery cell occurs over the entire section, and <FIG> illustrates a result of detecting that the voltage drop due to the internal short of the battery cell occurs temporarily.

In this case, the horizontal axis of <FIG> and <FIG> represents the number of charging cycles of the battery, and the vertical axis thereof represents the maximum value (V) of a difference value between the actual measured voltage of the battery and the voltage according to the fitting equation.

Referring to <FIG>, for the case where the voltage drop due to the internal short of the battery cell occurs over the entire section, the difference value between the actual measured voltage of the battery and the voltage according to the fitting equation is compared with a preset reference value, and when the difference value is greater than or equal to the reference value (part <NUM> of <FIG>), it may be determined that the voltage drop due to the internal short of the battery cell has occurred.

Similarly, referring to <FIG>, even for the case where the voltage drop due to the internal short of the battery cell occurs temporarily, the difference value between the actual measured voltage of the battery and the voltage according to the fitting equation is compared with a preset reference value, and when the difference value is greater than or equal to the reference value (parts <NUM> and <NUM> in <FIG> ), it may be determined that the voltage drop due to the internal short of the battery cell has occurred. In this case, the reference values of <FIG> and <FIG> may be determined based on a measurement range of a voltage sensor itself.

As such, according to the apparatus for diagnosing the battery according to an embodiment of the present invention, by diagnosing the voltage drop by comparing the difference value between the actual measured voltage of the battery and the voltage according to the fitting equation with the reference value, it is possible to diagnose whether or not an abnormality has occurred not only for the case where when the voltage drop due to the internal short of the battery cell occurs over the entire section, but also the case where the voltage drop occurs temporarily.

<FIG> is a flowchart illustrating a method for diagnosing a battery according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to <FIG>, first, a voltage of a battery cell is measured (S710). In this case, the voltage of the battery cell may be measured at predetermined time intervals.

In addition, a fitting equation for the voltage of the battery cell is calculated (S720). In this case, the fitting equation may be calculated through the least squares estimation. In addition, in step S720, the fitting equation for the voltage in the rest section after charging of the battery cell is completed may be calculated.

Next, it is determined whether or not a difference between the voltage of the battery cell measured in step S710 and the fitting equation for the voltage of the battery cell calculated in step S720 is greater than or equal to a preset reference value (S730). If the difference between the measured voltage of the battery cell and the fitting equation for the calculated voltage of the battery cell is less than the preset reference value (NO), the process returns to step S710.

On the other hand, if the difference between the measured voltage of the battery cell and the approximation of the calculated voltage of the battery cell is greater than or equal to the preset reference value (YES), it is determined that an abnormality (e.g., voltage drop due to the internal short of the battery) of the battery cell has occurred (S740).

As described above, according to the method for diagnosing the battery according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to accurately and easily detect an abnormal voltage drop phenomenon due to the internal short during battery charging by using a fitting equation for the voltage of the battery cell.

<FIG> is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the apparatus for diagnosing the battery according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to <FIG>, an apparatus <NUM> for diagnosing a battery may include a microcontroller (MCU) <NUM> that controls various processes and configurations, a memory <NUM> in which an operating system program and various programs (e.g., a battery diagnostic program, a voltage fitting equation calculation program, etc.) are recorded, an input/output interface <NUM> that provides an input interface and an output interface between the battery cell module and/or the semiconductor switching element, and a communication interface <NUM> capable of communicating with the outside through a wired or wireless communication network. As described above, the computer program according to the present invention may be implemented as, for example, a module that performs each functional block illustrated in <FIG> by being recorded in the memory <NUM> and processed by the microcontroller <NUM>.

In the above description, just because all constituent elements constituting an embodiment of the present invention are described as being combined into one or operating in combination, the present invention is not necessarily limited to these embodiments. That is, as long as it is within the scope of the object of the present invention, all constituent elements may be selectively combined and operated in one or more.

In addition, the terms such as "include", "configure" or "have" described above mean that the corresponding constituent element may be embedded unless otherwise particularly described, and thus the terms should be interpreted as being capable of further including other constituent elements, rather than excluding other constituent elements. All terms used herein including technical or scientific terms may have the same meaning as generally understood by a person having an ordinary skill in the technical field to which the present invention pertains, unless otherwise defined. Terms generally used, such as terms defined in the dictionary, should be interpreted as being consistent with the meaning of the context of related technology, and are not to be interpreted as an ideal or excessively formal meaning unless explicitly defined in the present invention.

Claim 1:
An apparatus (<NUM>) for diagnosing a battery, the apparatus (<NUM>) comprising:
a voltage measurement unit (<NUM>)configured to measure a voltage of a battery cell at predetermined time intervals;
a fitting equation calculation unit (<NUM>) configured to calculate a fitting equation for the voltage of the battery cell; and
a diagnostic unit (<NUM>) configured to diagnose whether or not the battery cell is abnormal based on the fitting equation for the voltage of the battery cell;
wherein the diagnostic unit (<NUM>) is configured to diagnose the battery is abnormal when a difference between the voltage of the battery cell measured by the voltage measurement unit (<NUM>) and the fitting equation for the voltage of the battery cell is greater than or equal to a preset reference value.