Patent ID: 8253383

Claim:
A voltage detection circuit for low power consumption monitoring of a rechargeable multi-cell battery pack, comprising: a status sensing network configured to detect a plurality of cell voltages, each of said cell voltages corresponding to an individual battery cell of a plurality of battery cells comprising a first to an N th battery cell; and a comparing network coupled to said status sensing network and configured to simultaneously compare said cell voltages with at least one predetermined voltage threshold using a plurality of indicative signals and a predetermined comparison threshold, and further configured to generate an indication signal if an extremum of said cell voltages crosses said predetermined voltage threshold, wherein said indicative signals are indicative of said cell voltages respectively, wherein said predetermined comparison threshold corresponds to said predetermined voltage threshold, and wherein said comparing network comprises: a threshold transistor that receives said predetermined comparison threshold; a first-gain stage coupled to said threshold transistor and comprising N first-gain transistors that receive said indicative signals, said first-gain stage configured to actuate a K th first-gain transistor of said N first-gain transistors to indicate a difference between said predetermined comparison threshold and a K th indicative signal that is an extremum of said indicative signals and is received by said K th first-gain transistor, wherein said K th first-gain transistor is actuated if said K th indicative signal crosses said predetermined comparison threshold; and a second-gain stage coupled to said first-gain stage and configured to generate said indication signal based on said difference if said K th indicative signal crosses said predetermined comparison threshold, where K=1, 2, . . . , N.