Patent ID: 8183870

Claim:
A battery system for a plurality of battery cells, said battery system comprising: a plurality of transformers electrically coupled to said plurality of battery cells, said plurality of transformers comprising: a plurality of saturable magnetic cores, said plurality of saturable magnetic cores being saturable to a first magnetic state comprising a first magnetic flux direction and being saturable to a second magnetic state comprising a second magnetic flux direction, said plurality of saturable magnetic cores being operable for substantially retaining said first magnetic state and said second magnetic state without current flow through said plurality of transformers; a plurality of transformer selection windings connected to said plurality of saturable magnetic cores so as to be operable to address a particular transformer from said plurality of transformers through control of said first magnetic state and said second magnetic state for at least one of sensing or balancing a charge state of a particular battery cell or a particular bank of battery cells, said plurality of transformer selection windings comprising: a plurality of row windings and a plurality of column windings for said plurality of transformers, wherein a combination of a particular row winding and a particular column winding being operable to address said particular transformer; and a plurality of sense windings interconnected to each other in series wherein at least one sense winding is operably associated with each transformer in said plurality of transformers; control circuitry connected to said plurality of saturable magnetic cores to supply electric current to selectively place said plurality of saturable magnetic cores in said first magnetic state or said second magnetic state for at least one of sensing or balancing said charge state of said particular battery cell or said particular bank of battery cells; a plurality of row switches and a plurality of column switches connected to said plurality of row windings and said plurality of column windings to permit current flow through said particular row winding and said particular column winding for alternately producing said first magnetic state and said second magnetic state in said respective one of said plurality of saturable magnetic cores; and an analog to digital converter operably connected to said plurality of sense windings for measuring said charge state of said particular battery cell or said particular bank of battery cells, wherein said combination of said particular row winding and said articular column winding are electrically connected for alternately producing said first magnetic state and said second magnetic state in a respective one of said plurality of saturable magnetic cores for at least one of sensing or balancing said charge state of said particular battery cell or said particular bank of battery cells.