Patent ID: 8427167

Claim:
A method for identifying a presence of a leakage path in a multi-cell voltage source, comprising: measuring the voltage of the voltage source using a first circuit path configuration to obtain a first voltage measurement, wherein the first circuit path configuration comprises a pair of amplifiers connecting in inverting configurations; when the first voltage measurement shows a deviation from a predetermined voltage, configuring the circuit path to a second configuration; measuring the voltage of the voltage source using the second circuit path configuration to obtain a second voltage measurement; and deriving a leakage impedance and a leakage voltage from the first and second voltage measurements; and if a deviation is not detected, repeating another iteration of measuring the voltage of the voltage source to obtain a new first voltage measurement; and after a predetermined number of iterations in which a deviation is not detected, configuring the circuit path to another circuit path configuration to obtain a revised measurement of the voltage source; and using the revised measurement of the voltage source to determine if the revised measurement deviates from the predetermined voltage.