Patent ID: 7622898

Claim:
A charging apparatus for electrically charging a capacitor storage type power source adapted to store electric energy in electric double layer capacitors, said apparatus comprising: a switching circuit for turning on/off a charge current supplied from a charge power source to the capacitor storage type power source; a current detection circuit for detecting the charge current; a voltage detection circuit for detecting the voltage of the capacitor storage type power source; a constant current control circuit for outputting an error amplifying signal for controlling the charge current according to a current value detected by the current detection circuit and a current reference value; a power control circuit for outputting an error amplifying signal for controlling the charge current according to the current value detected by the current detection circuit, a voltage value detected by the voltage detection circuit and a power reference value; a constant voltage control circuit for outputting an error amplifying signal for controlling the charge current according to the voltage detected by the voltage detection circuit and a voltage reference value; a logical OR circuit for selecting one of the error amplifying signals output from the constant current control circuit, the power control circuit and the constant voltage control circuit and outputting the selected error amplifying signal; and a control circuit for generating a pulse width modulation signal according to the error amplifying signal output from the logical OR circuit to turn on/off the switching circuit and control the charge current; the capacitor storage type power source having a plurality of electric double layer capacitors connected in series and parallel monitors for bypassing the respective charge currents of the capacitors; the constant current control circuit selecting a smaller reference value from a plurality of reference values provided as the current reference value according to the bypassing operations of the parallel monitors.