Battery management system with active inrush current control for Li-ion battery in light electric vehicles

This paper presents a design concept of integrating an inrush current control function into a battery management system (BMS) for Li-ion battery used in light electric vehicles. The proposed concept exploits the existing discharge MOSFET, which has the primary function as an electronic circuit breaker, for the secondary function as an inrush current limiter. The proposed inrush current control function is implemented as an adaptation based on an existing BMS platform. The gate control circuit is redesigned together with an adaptation of the BMS software. Both hardware and software adaptations do not lead to any significant increase in material costs. The major technical challenge of the proposed concept is finding an appropriate trade-off design between the performances of two functions, cutting off circuit and limiting inrush current. The design procedures are presented along with technical discussions for making design compromises. At the end, the functionality of the proposed technique is validated by experimental results.