Patent ID: 8564247

Claim:
A cell management system for balancing energy across a plurality of cells coupled to a circuit bus, each cell of the plurality of cells including a positive terminal and a negative terminal, the cell management system comprising: for each cell of the plurality of cells, a first cell switch pair, a second cell switch pair, and a fourth cell switch pair; a transformer comprising a first inductor and a second inductor, the first inductor being on a first side of the transformer and the second inductor being on a second side of the transformer; the first cell switch pair for each cell of the plurality of cells being on the second side of the transformer, and the fourth cell switch pair for each cell of the plurality of cells being on the first side of the transformer; a first transformer switch between the first inductor and the fourth cell switch pair for each cell of the plurality of cells; a second transformer switch between the second inductor and the first cell switch pair for each cell of the plurality of cells; a connection between the circuit bus and a first cell in the serial connection of the plurality of cells, the first cell being one of the plurality of cells and being located at a first end of the serial connection of the plurality of cells; and a connection between the circuit bus and a last cell in the serial connection of the plurality of cells, the last cell being one of the plurality of cells and being located at a second end of the serial connection of the plurality of cells, the second end being opposite of the first end; wherein for each individual cell of the plurality of cells, the first cell switch pair of the individual cell allows the transfer of energy between the transformer and the individual cell, the second cell switch pair of the individual cell allows the removal or inclusion of the individual cell in the serial connection of the plurality of cells, and the fourth cell switch pair of the individual cell allows the transfer of energy between the transformer and the individual cell.