US Patent 8219333 Battery management systems for protecting batteries from fault conditions

A battery management system for a battery pack that includes multiple battery cells is disclosed. The battery management system includes a detector coupled to the battery cells, multiple temperature sensors coupled to the battery cells, a current sensor coupled to the battery cells in series, and a processor coupled to the current sensor. The detector generates first monitoring signals corresponding to cell voltages across the battery cells. The temperature sensors generate second monitoring signals corresponding to temperatures of the battery cells. The current sensor generates third monitoring signals corresponding to currents of the battery cells. The processor determines whether an undesired condition is present according to the first, second, and third monitoring signals.