Patents Examined by Michael Dibenedetto
  • Patent number: 9902283
    Abstract: A battery for a motor vehicle with at least two adjacently arranged battery cells. A boundary surface of a first one of the at least two battery cells has a first electrically conductive surface coupled to a first actuating device and a boundary surface of a second one of the at least two battery cells has a second electrically conductive surface coupled to a second actuating device. The two electrically conductive surfaces are arranged electrically insulated from one another and form a capacitor element. The actuating devices are designed to transfer energy between the first of the at least two battery cells and the second of the at least two battery cells by generating an alternating electric field in the capacitor element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2018
    Assignee: AUDI AG
    Inventors: Michael Hinterberger, Berthold Hellenthal
  • Patent number: 9889751
    Abstract: The present invention provides a battery management apparatus and method which connect a plurality of batteries having different energy densities to each other and control power supplied through the plurality of batteries to control the driving of the driving body.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2018
    Assignee: LG CHEM, LTD.
    Inventors: Minchul Jang, Dong Keun Kwon, Min Seo Kim, Yu Mi Kim, Byoungkuk Son, Da Young Sung, Seong Ho Lee, Gi Su Park
  • Patent number: 9893542
    Abstract: This disclosure relates to systems and methods for charging a battery. An example embodiment includes receiving information about an initial state of charge of a battery. If an initial state of charge is less than a predetermined threshold and if a charger is electrically coupled to the battery, a charger may be configured to charge the battery according to a preferred charge rate higher than a default charge rate. A charging duration is determined based on a type of the battery, the initial state of charge, a target state of charge, and the charge rate. A controller may determine a partial charge condition based on at least one of: providing electrical current to the battery at the charge rate for the charging duration or receiving information indicative of a state of charge of the battery reaching the target state of charge.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2018
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Tai Sup Hwang, Ramesh C Bhardwaj, Sheba Devan
  • Patent number: 9871393
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides a charging method and a user equipment. The charging method includes: measuring a maximum output current value of a charger according to a received fast charging instruction; setting a charging current value for a battery of a user equipment according to the maximum output current value; receiving, from the charger, a first charging current corresponding to the charging current value; and disconnecting the charger if a charging temperature of the battery is detected to be higher than a preset temperature. The charging method and user equipment provided in the present disclosure solve problems in the prior art that the charger is damaged because of overloading in case of emergency charging, and that the battery of the user equipment is overcharged because of an over-high charging temperature, so that safe and fast charging is implemented.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 16, 2018
    Assignee: HUAWEI DEVICE CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Zhiming Hao
  • Patent number: 9853489
    Abstract: A charging device configured to charge a mobile device through the solar cells integrated on the mobile device. The charging device converts wall power to light energy which can be absorbed by the solar cells and then converted to electricity for storage in the rechargeable battery of the mobile device. The charging device includes a light source configured to emit a light beam having a spectrum tuned to the spectral response of the solar cells. The charging device includes a proximity sensor for detecting the presence of a mobile device within the charging device housing and responsively signaling the activation of the light source. The charging device includes logic for wirelessly communicating with the mobile device as well as controlling the charging process in various stages and aspects. The light source may be LEDs that also serve to transmit light communication signals to the mobile device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 6, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2017
    Assignee: Alta Devices, Inc.
    Inventors: Gang He, Brendan Kayes, Christopher France
  • Patent number: 9847655
    Abstract: A system comprises an electric battery having at least four elementary cells in series and at least two balancing modules each having first and second nodes connected by at least three cells of the battery, and a third node connected to an intermediate point of the series-association of the at least three cells, in which at least one of the first and second nodes of each module is not common to a first or second node of another module.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 10, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 19, 2017
    Assignee: Enerstone
    Inventors: Alain Bailly, Alexandre Chureau
  • Patent number: 9837847
    Abstract: A wireless charging transmitter is provided for charging an electronic device having a receiver coil. The wireless charging transmitter includes a charging module, including a transmitter coil electromagnetically coupled to the receiver coil, and a comb-shaped combination of shielding and planar dipole antenna array. The comb-shaped combination of shielding and planar dipole antenna array includes a plurality of dipole antennas; each of the dipole antennas includes a plurality of comb-like antenna portions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2017
    Assignee: LITE-ON TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION
    Inventor: Andre Waldschmidt
  • Patent number: 9821669
    Abstract: The electric vehicular connector includes: a connection terminal block including a primary power transmission terminal to be electrically connected to a first power terminal of a power converter; a plug including a secondary power transmission terminal to be electrically connected to a second power terminal of an inlet of an electric vehicle; a breaker which is connected between the primary power transmission terminal and the secondary power transmission terminal and has a closed state of electrically interconnecting the primary power transmission terminal and the secondary power transmission terminal and an open state of electrically separating the primary power transmission terminal and the secondary power transmission terminal from each other; and a breaker controller configured to set the connector-side breaker in the closed state during a normal state and to set the connector-side breaker in the open state during an abnormal state in which abnormality occurs in the electric vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2017
    Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Mitsuru Tanabe
  • Patent number: 9787125
    Abstract: A battery management system and a method of driving the same are provided. When the output signal of a charger is higher than a first voltage, a battery cell is charged with a first current by a first charge circuit. When the output signal of the charger is higher than a second voltage, a battery cell is charged with a second current by a second charge circuit. The second voltage is higher than the first voltage and second current is higher than the first current.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2017
    Assignee: SAMSUNG SDI CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Se-Jin Ji
  • Patent number: 9755449
    Abstract: Systems and methods may provide for a charger that includes a converter with a battery port, a first bypass switch coupled to a first bus port and the battery port, and a second bypass switch coupled to a second bus port and the battery port. Additionally, a charge controller may use one or more control signals to manage power to be delivered from the first bus port through the first bypass switch to the battery port, and power to be delivered from the second bus port through the second bypass switch to the battery port.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2017
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Chee Lim Nge, Alexander B. Uan-Zo-Li, Robert A. Dunstan
  • Patent number: 9735593
    Abstract: A battery system includes a plurality of battery packs connected in parallel each including a switch and a battery connected to the switch in series and a battery state determining unit determining a state of the battery. The battery state determining unit includes a disconnection determining unit controlling disconnection of the switch and a switch controller controlling open and close of the switch in accordance with a result of determining the state. The disconnection determining unit calculates allowable stop and demanded stop periods of the battery packs on the basis of the past data, season data, and allowable currents of the batteries and transmits data to the switch controller when the demanded stop period is smaller than the allowable stop period, and the switch controller makes the switch in an open state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2017
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Mitsutoshi Honda, Takeshi Inoue
  • Patent number: 9735629
    Abstract: Methods and systems for automatically aligning a power-transmitting inductor with a power-receiving inductor. One embodiment includes a method of applying a direct current pulse to a transmit coil of a power-transmitting inductor to attract the power-receiving inductor into alignment along an alignment axis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 28, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2017
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel C. Wagman, Christopher S. Graham, Eric S. Jol
  • Patent number: 9726732
    Abstract: A system and method for estimating internal parameters of a lithium-ion battery to provide a reliable battery state-of-charge estimate. The method uses a two RC-pair equivalent battery circuit model to estimate the battery parameters, including a battery open circuit voltage, an ohmic resistance, a double layer capacitance, a charge transfer resistance, a diffusion resistance and a diffusion capacitance. The method further uses the equivalent circuit model to provide a difference equation from which the battery parameters are adapted, and calculates the battery parameters from the difference equation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2017
    Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC
    Inventors: Jian Lin, Xidong Tang, Brian J. Koch, Joseph M. Lograsso, Damon R. Frisch, Rezina S. Nabi
  • Patent number: 9716386
    Abstract: In a contactless power supply system 10 having a secondary coil 13 receiving electric power generated from a primary coil 12 to be connected to a high-frequency power source 11, and a resonance coil 14 arranged in direct contact with the secondary coil 13 in between the primary coil 12 and the secondary coil 13, respective planarly-viewed areas of the secondary and the resonance coils 13, 14 are equal to or smaller than a planarly-viewed area of the primary coil 12, the primary coil 12 is formed by planarly and spirally winding a first litz wire 25, the resonance coil 14 is formed by tandemly winding coils 27, 28 in a double layer, the coils 27, 28 being formed by planarly and spirally winding a second litz wire 26, and the secondary coil 13 is formed by parallelly arranging and planarly and spirally winding third litz wires 29, 29a.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 25, 2017
    Assignee: HEADS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Keiichi Honda, Yutaka Imoto
  • Patent number: 9684356
    Abstract: A method for determining remaining battery service time of a mobile terminal includes determining a plurality of battery usage times, wherein each battery usage time corresponds to a respective predefined battery power level interval. Upon receipt of a request to determine the remaining battery service time, the mobile terminal determines a current battery power level of the mobile terminal and compares the current battery power level with at least one of the plurality of battery usage times and their associated predefined battery power level intervals to determine the remaining battery service time. The remaining battery service time is then displayed on the mobile terminal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2017
    Assignee: SHELL INTERNET (BEIJING) SECURITY TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Sheng Fu, Ming Xu, Xin Liang
  • Patent number: 9627897
    Abstract: Systems and methods for charging a plurality of battery strings are provided. The individual string current of each of the individual battery strings can be monitored and used to regulate a charging output provided by the charger. For instance, the output voltage of charger can be controlled as part of a closed loop control system based on the individual string current of the battery string under the constraint of an individual string current limit and/or a charging voltage limit. As the charging voltage of the charger increases as a result of the closed loop control based on the individual string current, other battery strings can be coupled to the charger when the charging voltage provided by the charger exceeds a battery string voltage associated with the battery string.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2017
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventors: Jiucai Zhang, Charles Clarence Hicks, Jr., Sam T. Liu, Robert A. Kaucic, Leng Mao
  • Patent number: 9601931
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a device for monitoring and balancing the cell voltages of at least two energy storage cells, which are electrically connected in series, of a multi-cell energy storage stack having at least one energy storage element, a voltage measuring unit, a first combinatorial circuit that is connected to each energy storage cell and the voltage measuring unit, a second combinatorial circuit that is connected to the energy storage element, the voltage measuring unit, and the first combinatorial circuit, and controls a control unit, which is connected to the voltage measuring unit and the first and second combinatorial circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2017
    Assignee: Liebherr-Elektronik GmbH
    Inventors: Nejat Mahdavi Tabatabaei, Michael Kipp, Aly Mashaly, Erich Riedisser
  • Patent number: 9590445
    Abstract: It is provided an apparatus for transferring energy to an accumulator, the apparatus having a core and a wire wound around the core thereby forming a coil, wherein the coil is adapted to receive energy from a magnetic field, wherein the wire is connectable to the accumulator to transfer the received energy to the accumulator. A charging station for generating a magnetic field for transferring energy to an accumulator is provided, and a system for charging an electric accumulator is provided, wherein the system includes an apparatus as described above; and a charging station having a further wire wound such as to form a further coil.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2017
    Assignee: NXP B.V.
    Inventors: Steven Aerts, Steven Mark Thoen, Steven Daenen
  • Patent number: 9577436
    Abstract: Described herein are improved configurations for a wireless power transfer. Described are methods and designs for implantable electronics and devices. Wireless energy transfer is utilized to eliminate cords and power cables puncturing the skin to power an implantable device. Repeater resonators are employed to improve the power transfer characteristics between the source and the device resonators.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2017
    Assignee: WiTricity Corporation
    Inventors: Morris P. Kesler, Katherine L. Hall, Andre B. Kurs, Aristeidis Karalis, Marin Soljacic, Andrew J. Campanella, David A. Schatz
  • Patent number: 9577442
    Abstract: Provided are a cell balance device with high cell balance performance and high cell balance speed and requiring no high voltage process, and a battery system including the cell balance devices. The cell balance device includes: three terminals to be connected to secondary batteries; one terminal to be connected to a voltage hold device; three switches provided between the three terminals and the one terminal; and a receiving terminal and a transmitting terminal for a synchronization signal. Alternatively, the cell balance device includes: four terminals to be connected to secondary batteries; two terminals to be connected to a voltage hold device; six switches provided between the four terminals and the two terminals; and a receiving terminal and a transmitting terminal for a synchronization signal. The battery system includes: a plurality of secondary batteries; a plurality of voltage hold devices; a plurality of cell balance devices; and a clock generation circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 9, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2017
    Assignee: SII SEMICONDUCTOR CORPORATION
    Inventors: Atsushi Sakurai, Kazuaki Sano, Hiroshi Saito