RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part application of the prior application Ser. No. 17/129,857 filed on Dec. 21, 2020. This application, at least in part, seeks priority to application Ser. No. 17/129,857 with its priority date as that of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62,958,716, filed on Jan. 8, 2020; the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention

Over the past few years, the demand for portability of electronic systems has driven the need for more types and sizes of portable battery systems. In the beginning, these systems were used to power mobile phones, digital cameras, and portable digital assistants (PDA). These battery systems used a variety of battery chemistry devices such as nickel metal hydride, lithium ion, and lithium polymer and could deliver more than 1 A of continuous current. As these systems proliferated, problems with the battery systems arose requiring better control systems to prevent problems such as overcharging, over-discharging or excessive current drawing. The prior art (FIG. 2) of these battery protection systems utilized a multi-chip approach involving discrete NMOS power MOSFET switches and a separate controller chip to handle the large currents and power requirements of these systems. Recently, new ultra-portable systems have emerged including smart watches, fitness trackers and wireless earphones which require a different type of battery delivering significantly less current to the device. These ultra-portable systems require ultra-low current consumption to extend the useful life of the device before needing to be recharged. Into this field has emerged a new type of battery protection system utilizing a completely integrated power switch and battery protection system (FIG. 1) which draws very little current during its operating mode. This new approach utilizes an ultra-low leakage PMOS power MOSFET as the main switch element operating in series with the positive terminal of the battery and directly monitoring the load current through the switch without any sensing resistor. The advantage of this approach is that the battery on the input side can be completely protected through the PMOS switch both from over-discharging as well as from overcharging by having the battery charger connected on the switch output side.

2. Prior Art

- U.S. Pat. No. 8,674,661: Voltage Switching Circuit, Secondary Battery Protection Circuit, And Battery Pack
- U.S. Pat. No. 9,142,283: Battery Protection IC, And Battery Device 3. Summary of the Invention

It is the object of the invention to provide battery control and protection in the following manner. First is to prevent the battery from over discharging when being idle such as in a warehouse or during shipping. In the prior art system shown in FIG. 2, even though the battery minus terminal can be disconnected from the load via the external NMOS switches M1 and M2, the battery remains connected across the VDD and VSS terminals of the control circuit thereby constantly drawing current. In the current embodiment of the invention the power switch remains in the open position until it becomes energized by raising the output voltage above the battery voltage such as would be the case when the output would be connected to a battery charging circuit of say 5V. The battery voltage being nominally between 3.0V and 4.2V. The use of this feature allows the battery to be disconnected from the load normally such as when the initial battery is first connected to the protection circuit. Additional features can be added to improve the battery protection capability of the system. A second embodiment can add an additional overcharging protection circuit thus ensuring that the battery itself cannot be overcharged. A third embodiment of the invention could also add an overcurrent detection circuit which would protect the battery from a load which was outside of the normal operating range of the system. A fourth embodiment could also include a deep sleep function of the battery protection system which would allow the user to manually disconnect the battery from the system load after a specified period of normal operation, such as placing the unit into storage prior to shipment. None of these embodiments are possible using the prior art.

Methods that use the circuits described are also set forth.

4. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other aspects and features will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon review of the following description of specific embodiments in conjunction with the accompanying figures, wherein:

FIG. 1 is an overall block diagram of the power PMOS load switch with slew rate control and battery protection functions.

FIG. 2 shows an application of the prior art.

FIG. 3 shows the most basic embodiment of the protection switch.

FIG. 4 shows the typical system application of the present invention where the battery charger IC is connected to the output side of the protection switch rather than directly connected to the battery as in the prior art.

FIG. 5 shows the typical timing diagram of the battery protection device.

FIG. 6 discloses the block diagram of the most basic embodiment of the invention with the Enable, Slew Rate Control, and ODC blocks.

FIG. 7 discloses a further embodiment with the addition of the Over Current Control (OCTC) block.

FIG. 8 discloses a further embodiment with the addition of the Overcharge Control (OCC) block.

FIG. 9 discloses a further embodiment with the addition of the Shipping Mode control block.

FIG. 10 shows the timing diagram used to establish the battery saving feature of shipping mode in the present invention.

FIG. 11 discloses a further embodiment with the addition of Overdischarge Current (ODCT) protection which is added to the Overdischarge block (321), Overcharge Current (OCCT) protection which is added to the Overcharge block (341), and Thermal Shutdown (TSD) protection.

FIG. 12 shows the temperature control performance of the TSD block.

FIG. 13 discloses a further embodiment with an addition of the Reverse Current Control (RCC) block (21).

FIG. 14 illustrates a function of the RCC block (21) structure in a normal charging mode.

FIG. 15 illustrates another function of the RCC block (21) structure in an overcharging mode.

5. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The first embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 6 where (10) is the power protection IC which is designed to provide ODC protection for the portable battery system (40). The design is focused on the power switching PMOS transistor (20) and the switch control system (30). The switch control system is designed to protect the battery in several ways. Firstly, the slew rate control (300) is designed to provide slow rate of voltage rise from the VIN terminal which is connected to the battery power source (40) and to the load connected at the VOUT terminal. The load generally consists of a load capacitance (50) and a load resistance (60) which will cause current to flow from VIN to VOUT while the PMOS power switch (20) is being turned on. If the flow of current from VIN to VOUT is not carefully controlled, either the battery delivering the current or the output receiving the power could be seriously damaged. Allowing too much current to flow during the turn on time of the PMOS switch could needlessly discharge the battery causing the VIN voltage to drop below the recommended minimum voltage for the battery. Repeatedly discharging Li-Ion batteries in this manner can damage the long-term performance of the battery. Furthermore, providing excessive current into the load at the output terminal can cause voltage spikes on VOUT which could potentially overvoltage circuits connected to the VOUT terminal. To prevent the battery voltage from discharging below the recommended minimum voltage level, the present embodiment also includes an ODC circuit (320). This circuit will be activated to open the PMOS switch to disconnect the battery on the VIN terminal from the load on the VOUT terminal thereby ensuring that the battery voltage cannot be further discharged below its allowed minimum. A further protection is added in the current embodiment to protect the battery from accidental discharge during assembly into the battery system. This protection involves placing the Enable circuit (310) at the VOUT terminal. In this way, the PMOS switch is always in the off position unless the voltage on the VOUT terminal is raised above the voltage on the VIN terminal by a suitable threshold voltage. This allows the battery to be connected to the VIN terminal without any load being present. The methodology for energizing the PMOS switch is to connect the battery charger to the VOUT terminal of the protection IC, shown in FIG. 4, to raise the VOUT voltage higher than the battery voltage on the VIN terminal since the battery charger voltage is typically 5V, whereas the LI-Ion battery voltage is generally in the range of 3.9V˜4.2V.

A further embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 7. In this embodiment, an additional protection system is added into the switch control block (30), the Over Current Control (OCTC) detection (330). With OCTC, the PMOS switch (20) can be opened to prevent excessive currents from the VIN terminal to the VOUT terminal. Such excessive currents could be caused either by a short to ground at the VOUT terminal or a malfunctioning circuit subsystem that is connected to the VOUT terminal. In either case, the over current condition can be detected, and the switch opened thereby preventing further damage to either the load circuitry or to the battery on the VIN terminal.

A further embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 8 with the addition of an Overcharge Control (OCC) detection circuit (340). Once again, it is the object of the overcharge detection system to ensure that during the charging of the battery (40) by the battery charger which is connected to the VOUT terminal (FIG. 4), will not exceed the maximum designated voltage set for the battery type. For Li-Ion batteries that maximum voltage is around 4.4V-4.5V. Since the overcharge detection circuit is connected to the VIN terminal, which is also connected to the battery, the battery voltage can be monitored directly. Should an overcharge voltage (OCV) condition be found, the overcharge detection system will signal the PMOS switch (20) to open and thus terminate the battery charging cycle. To prevent any false triggering of the overcharge circuitry, a detection delay is included in the circuit. The delay time used depends on the battery type being used in the application; however, typical delay times for the overcharge detection system for Li-Ion batteries are in the 500 us-800 us time range.

A further embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 9 with the addition of a Shipping Mode (SM) function (400). It is the object of the SM function to control the enable/disable feature of the battery protection IC by means of an external push button switch (80) or to give a positive pulse on the SM pin, and the pulse width should be longer than a specified time. As shown in FIG. 9, a simple push button switch S1 (80) can be connected to resistor (70) and the SM terminal of the device. When the button (80) connects VIN to the SM pin for a specified period (see FIG. 10), the shipping mode function will then place the PMOS switch (20) into an open position thereby disconnecting the battery from the system loads, that can fully cut off the charging and discharging path between battery and loads, then prevent a pre-charged battery capacity from discharging at all. At the meantime SM signal will let present invention itself going and placing the system into a deep sleep mode, thus there is nearly no load consuming any battery current. This action will remove all possible current leakage paths from the battery at the VIN terminal allowing the battery to retain its charged voltage for an indefinite period. This function can be used in the storage and shipment of the ultra-portable system allowing it to arrive at the user destination without a drained battery. The function of the shipping mode system can then be overcome by plugging the battery charger into the VOUT terminal as is shown in FIG. 4, thus energizing the Enable path (310) and restoring the system to full functionality.

A further embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 11 which introduces the capability of Overcharge Current (OCCT) detection in addition to Overcharge Voltage (OCV) detection (341) as well as the addition of Overdischarge Current (ODCT) detection to the Overdischarge Voltage (ODV) detection (321). The OCCT detection (341) allows the system to detect a dangerous current condition prior to the system reaching the OCV threshold and thereby protecting the battery from a dangerous current level. In a similar fashion, the ODCT detection (321) circuitry allows the system to protect the battery from a dangerous rapid discharge due to excessive current flow. In addition to the above battery protection measures, the embodiment introduces a Thermal Shutdown Detection (TSD) function (500). The TSD function continuously monitors the temperature of the IC and will open the PMOS switch (20) via the Enable block (310) should the die temperature exceed 130 C (see FIG. 12). The TSD will further monitor the temperature and re-enable the PMOS switch should the die temperature fall below 110 C.

A further embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 13. For this protection, a Reverse Current Control (RCC) block (21) is added to control the Bulk node of the PMOS device (20). Under normal charging conditions when the VIN voltage is greater than the Overdischarge Voltage (ODV) circuit level, the PMOS switch will be closed allowing the VIN pin to be connected to the VOUT pin so that the battery charger can charge the battery up to its desired voltage level. However, should the VIN voltage fall below the ODV threshold, the PMOS switch will be open to prevent any reverse current discharge of the battery. As shown in FIG. 14, there is a diode in the Reverse Current Control block (21) point from VOUT to VIN side, this diode can avoid battery current flow to load side and exhaust the battery, and it allow the current flow into the battery when the charger is once again applied to the VOUT pin. In the event that the battery voltage continues to be charged above the OCV level, the OCV protection will turn off the PMOS switch, and switch the bulk terminal connection to prevent more current to flow into the battery when the charger is applied to the VOUT pin all the time, at that time the diode in RCC will point from VIN to VOUT side shown in FIG. 15. This is the function of the RCC block. Thus, depending on the system conditions, the RCC block can be configured to either block reverse current or to allow reverse current.

The present invention includes a method of saving battery energy as described. In prior art, Vout delivers voltage if the battery connects with system. In present invention, Vout does not have any value until another extra voltage (>3.6V) applies to Vout like a charger. This feature can extend battery life dramatically for warehouse storage and shipping, especially long-time shipping.