Battery charge equalization circuit with a multi-winding transformer

This study proposes a battery charge equalization circuit with a multi-winding transformer. A full-bridge converter with soft switching is applied at the primary side of a multi-winding transformer for reducing the switching loss and increasing the system efficiency. A voltage doubler type rectifier is used at the secondary side of multi-winding transformer to decrease the number of transformer windings and the conduction loss. The important advantages of the proposed circuit include the following: The charge current is limited by the transformer leakage inductance without any choke inductor, and charge equalization is realized by adjusting the transformer’s turn ratio. A measurement index, charge equalization performance (C.E.P.), is introduced for the performance measurement of the charge equalization method. In experiments, four LiFePO₄ battery modules are connected in series and discharged at different C-rates. The experimental results show that the discharging time of the series-connected battery modules can be greatly increased using the proposed battery charge equalization circuit.