Intelligent and universal fast charger for Ni-Cd and Ni-MH batteries in portable applications
Diaz, J.; Martin-Ramos, J.A.; Pernia, A.M.; Nuno, F.; Linera, F.F.
Industrial Electronics, IEEE Transactions on
Volume 51, Issue 4, Aug. 2004 Page(s): 857 - 863
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIE.2004.831740
Summary: In this paper, a new fast charger is presented for Ni-Cd and Ni-MH batteries, which are the most frequently used in portable applications. In this charger, the control and supervision of the process has been entrusted to a microcontroller, which provides a powerful and intelligent tool to undertake complex tasks, and reduces the requested circuitry to the microcontroller itself and a few additional components. The resulting charger is able to work out the initial battery state (detecting deteriorated devices), decide the suitable way to charge it (ensuring a long cyclic life), and determine when the charge process must be finished. This way, the state of the battery is always controlled, preventing any damage to it and providing a fully protected operation mode. This paper summarizes the design and construction of the presented charger, as well as shows the experimental results obtained in the prototype tests.
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