Multiwinding Transformer Based Cell Balancing System With Cost-Effective Gate Drivers

Cell balancing is a crucial element of battery management systems to ensure that the voltage difference of cells is within an appropriate range. This article presents a multiwinding transformer (MWT) based active cell equalizer with a cost-effective gate driving circuit. It allows all batteries to be balanced simultaneously at any time, resulting in faster balancing speed than the conventional half-bridge-based MWT equalizer. Moreover, all mosfets used in the equalizer are driven by a multiport circuit based on pulse-transformer isolation or capacitor isolation, resulting in lower cost and smaller size. These features make the proposed cell balancer more suitable for battery energy storage systems and electric vehicles that require fast cell equalization.