Patent 7990108 was granted and assigned to Atmel Corporation on August, 2011 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The subject matter of this specification can be embodied in, among other things, an apparatus that includes a battery system, which includes at least one cell and a charge enable device to couple the at least one cell to a charging voltage. The apparatus also includes an excessive voltage detector to output a signal to control the charge enable device. The signal prevents charging of the at least one cell if an excessive charging voltage is detected based on an activation of a clamping component.