AN231

Cell Balancing Design Guidelines

CELL BALANCING
Author: Rich DelRossi IMPLEMENTATIONS
Microchip Technology Inc.
In order to keep cells balanced, the individual voltages
must be monitored. When a voltage difference between
CELL BALANCE APPLICATIONS cells becomes too large, a circuit can be enabled to
draw more current from the higher cells. Power transis-
When battery packs are built with multiple cells in
tors connected to each cell can be turned on to bleed
series, cell balancing becomes an issue. Cell balance
occurs when all the individual cells in series have the high cells when necessary. During a discharge, the
transistor path will draw more current from high cells.
same capacity, and as a result, the same voltage. This
During charge, the transistor path will take some
is not a concern for cells in parallel since parallel cells
charge current away from high cells. More balance
will balance each other with mutually applied voltage.
current will occur near end of discharge and end of
For cells in series, this is a concern because it is the charge than in the middle of the cycles due to the
weakest cell that determines the empty point for the flatness of the voltage curve in the middle. Also it may
battery. The lowest capacity cell will have the lowest not be desirable to drain balance current near end of
voltage and cause end of discharge conditions in discharge, thus a controlling circuit can be used to only
battery gauges and under voltage conditions in safety drain balance current near end of charge on a charging
circuits to trip. Thus an undercharged series cell will cycle. The PS401 can provide this monitoring and
cause the entire pack to have less lifetime. During control.
charge, the highest voltage cell will trip the battery
A power transistor is necessary due to the amount of
gauge or safety circuit, and not allow the lower charged
current that needs to be drained. For example, if there
cells to fully charge. For this reason, cell balancing
circuitry should be considered for optimum runtime for is an imbalance of 100 mV between cells, this may
correspond to 200 mAH of charge (this will vary
any cell chemistry that has difficulty maintaining a
between cell manufacturers and operating conditions).
balance.
It would take 2 hours to balance these cells with a
Cell imbalance occurs when cells do not hold the same balancing current of 100 mA. This is too much current
amount of charge. It is important in the manufacturing to drain internally in an integrated circuit, thus it
process to match the capacitance of the cells to requires power transistors controlled by the IC. There
achieve cell balance. Since the capacitance of the cell are cell balancing safety IC’s available that can sink up
is the coulombs per volt, then cells of the same voltage to 10 mA of balancing current, but this would take the
will contain the same charge. This is done well today for above example 20 hours to balance. A trade off must
Lithium Ion cells, but for Lithium Polymer cells, it is be made between time to balance and power
difficult to match the capacitance. Thus same voltage dissipation in the battery module. This trade off will be
cells could vary somewhat in charge. It is important determined by the severity of expected imbalance.
then for Lithium Polymer cells to utilize cell balancing to
ensure the longest possible run time.

 2002 Microchip Technology Inc. DS00231A-page 1

AN231
CELL BALANCING WITH PS401 The cell balancing control could also be turned on only
when the cells are near full, based on the PS401 fuel
The PS401 monitors all individual cell voltages, and gauge. Because voltage curves are flat in the middle of
with its programmable I/O pins, it can be programmed the voltage vs. capacity curve, the voltage differential
to control the external power transistors to bleed due to capacity imbalance is only prominent near full
balancing current whenever voltage imbalance exists. and near empty. To save power, cell balancing can be
It can also enable balancing only when charging if enabled only during charge phase, and only when the
desired. A reference circuit is shown in Figure 1. cells are almost full, entering the steep voltage curve
The resistor values in the above schematic can be phase. For example the transistors could be turned on
chosen to limit the balance current to any required only when:
amount based on balancing speed vs. power consump- • Cells are charging
tion. PS401 firmware will control I/O1-4 to turn on the • Voltage differs more than 100 mV
pass transistors when cell imbalance is measured on
• Fuel gauge is more than 75% full
the Vcell pins, and only during charge phase if desired.
The PS401 can be programmed to handle all of this
control with no intervention by the host system.

FIGURE 1: CELL BALANCING CIRCUIT WITH PS401

CELL BALANCING WITH EXTERNAL SUMMARY

INTEGRATED CIRCUIT BALANCER/ • To correct small imbalances with current less than
PROTECTOR 10 mA, use a protector IC with integrated cell
balancing function such as AIC1804.
Some protector circuits have built in cell balancing
circuitry that will monitor voltage and drain cells without • To correct larger imbalances with current on the
the need for external transistors. As stated before, order of 100 mA, use a battery gauge IC with built
these IC’s do not have the current drain capability of in cell balance control functions, such as
external transistors, but have more capability than an Microchip PS401, with external pass transistors.
ordinary IC. One such protector circuit with built in • The choice will depend on expected imbalance,
balancing is the AIC1804 from Analog Integrated and tolerable battery module power consumption.
Circuits. This IC has overcharge protection and cell • The capacity balance correction is equal to the
balancing for up to four series cells. The cell balancing balance current x time, the voltage imbalance as
circuit can drain 9 mA of current. Since this function is a function of capacity correction will vary over the
integrated into the protector circuit, there are no other battery cycle – it will be greater near full and
extra components needed and power consumption of empty.
the module will be less than with external transistors.

DS00231A-page 2  2002 Microchip Technology Inc.

 AN231

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 2002 Microchip Technology Inc. DS00231A-page 3

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DS00231A-page 4  2002 Microchip Technology Inc.