Patent attributes
An apparatus including a monitoring unit including a voltage detection circuit which detects a voltage of the plurality of battery cells, a balancing unit including a first common resistor element and a switching module, the first common resistor element connected between a first common node and a second common node, and a control unit operably coupled to the monitoring unit and the switching module, the control unit determining a balancing target including at least one of the plurality of battery cells based on the voltage of each of the plurality of battery cells, controlling the switching module to form a current channel between the first common resistor element and the balancing target and determining a maximum number of battery cells that can be included in the balancing target based on resistance of the first common resistor element and the voltage of each of the plurality of battery cells.