A modularized charge equalizer using the magnetizing energy of the multi-winding transformer

The modularized equalizers use additional components among the modules in the long series-connected lithium-ion battery string. In these approaches, the overall systems are heavy, bulky, and high-priced. Furthermore, the losses related to additional components decrease the system efficiency. To avoid these problems, a modularized equalizer, which has no additional components among the modules, is required. This paper proposes a novel control scheme using the magnetizing energy of the multi-winding transformer for the module equalization. In this scheme, the high duty cycle is applied to the module where the voltage is higher than the reference voltage and the low duty cycle is applied to the module where the voltage is lower than the reference voltage. Due to the different duty cycle, more electric charges are transferred from high voltage module to the low voltage module during the turn-off switching interval. Using the proposed control scheme, the equalizer system does not suffer from the size, cost, and loss related to the modularization. The experimental results are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed modularized equalizer.