Patent ID: 8793087

Claim:
A modular device for protecting and monitoring a battery, said battery having a plurality of cells, the modular device comprising: at least one master integrated circuit; and a sequence of slave integrated circuit modules coupled to the at least one master integrated circuit with each slave integrated circuit module of the sequence of slave integrated circuit modules configured to couple to and be associated with a cell of the plurality of cells of the battery and with each slave integrated circuit module of the sequence of slave integrated circuit modules comprising: detection circuitry adapted to detect data comprising one or more of the temperature, voltage or charge status, and malfunctioning of a first cell of the plurality of cells; a VCN input terminal operable to electrically couple to the first cell of the plurality of cells to provide a first voltage value corresponding to a negative voltage value of the first cell; a VCP input terminal operable to electrically couple to the first cell of the plurality of cells to provide a second voltage value corresponding to a positive voltage value of the first cell and a negative voltage value of an adjacent cell of the plurality of cells, enabling the voltage of the first cell to be monitored by the first slave integrated circuit; a VCPP input terminal operable to electrically couple with the adjacent cell of the plurality of cells to provide a third voltage value corresponding to a positive voltage value of the adjacent cell; and an interface operable to send said detected data to the at least one master integrated circuit and operable to exchange detected data with an adjacent slave integrated circuit module associated with the adjacent cell in the plurality of cells, wherein the interface receives the second and third voltage values and wherein the second and third voltage values provide low and high reference voltages for signals exchanged with the adjacent slave integrated circuit module, wherein said at least one master integrated circuit is adapted to send commands to a slave integrated circuit module in response to the detected data comprising one or more of the temperature, voltage or charge status, and malfunctioning detected by the slave integrated circuit module.