U.S. patent application number 09/943055 was filed with the patent office on 2002-02-28 for pass/fail battery indicator.
This patent application is currently assigned to The Gillette Company, a Delaware corporation. Invention is credited to Klein, David N..
Application Number | 20020025470 09/943055 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 23127953 |
Filed Date | 2002-02-28 |
United States Patent
Application |
20020025470 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Klein, David N. |
February 28, 2002 |
Pass/fail battery indicator
Abstract
A battery tester, includes a voltage controlled display. The
battery tester is disposed on a battery with a first voltage
divider having a terminal coupled to a terminal of the voltage
controlled display and a second voltage divider having a terminal
coupled to a second terminal of the voltage controlled display. The
second voltage divider includes a non-linear device. A major
advantage of the tester compared to other testers is that a
consumer can merely look at the tester on the battery to determine
whether the battery is good or not. This tester eliminates the need
to hold the battery and depress a switch to engage the battery
tester.
Inventors: |
Klein, David N.; (Franklin,
MA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
ROBERT C. NABINGER
Fish & Richardson P.C.
225 Franklin Street
Boston
MA
02110-2804
US
|
Assignee: |
The Gillette Company, a Delaware
corporation
|
Family ID: |
23127953 |
Appl. No.: |
09/943055 |
Filed: |
August 30, 2001 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
09943055 |
Aug 30, 2001 |
|
|
|
09293168 |
Apr 16, 1999 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
429/90 ; 324/429;
429/93 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H01M 10/488 20130101;
H01M 10/48 20130101; H01M 6/505 20130101; G01R 31/3835 20190101;
Y02E 60/10 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
429/90 ; 429/93;
324/429 |
International
Class: |
H01M 010/48; H01M
010/48; G01N 027/416 |
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A battery tester, comprises: a voltage controlled display; a
voltage divider having a terminal coupled to a terminal of the
voltage controlled display; and a non-linear device coupled to the
voltage divider and a second terminal of the voltage controlled
display.
2. The battery tester of claim 1 wherein the display is an
electrophoretic display.
3. The battery tester of claim 1 wherein the non-linear device is a
metal-insulator-metal diode.
4. The battery tester of claim 1 wherein the voltage divider
includes a pair of resistors having the same resistance.
5. The battery tester of claim 1 further comprising a resistor and
wherein the resistor is coupled in series with the non-linear
device.
6. The battery tester of claim 1 wherein the tester in operation is
always coupled to the battery.
7. The battery tester of claim 1 wherein a voltage potential at the
first terminal of the display is a fraction of a battery cell
voltage and a potential at the second terminal of the display is
determined by a voltage across the non-linear element and
resistor.
8. The battery tester of claim 7 wherein as current is drawn from a
battery due to use or leakage, the voltage of one of the terminals
of the display will vary with respect to the voltage at the other
terminal of the display.
9. The battery tester of claim 8 wherein the non-linear device will
switch states causing the voltage at one terminal of the display to
become negative with respect to the voltage at the other terminal
of the display to cause a change in color of the display to
indicate that the battery is no longer within some defined
specification.
10. A battery comprising: a cell having an outer circumference; and
a battery tester disposed on the outer circumference of the cell,
said battery tester comprising: a voltage controlled display; a
voltage divider having a terminal coupled to a terminal of the
voltage controlled display; and a circuit path coupled in parrallel
with the voltage divider including a non-linear device and a
resistor coupled in series wherein the non-linear device has a
switching voltage characteristic that corresponds in magnitude to a
voltage of the cell.
11. The battery of claim 10 wherein the display of the tester is an
electrophoretic display.
12. The battery of claim 10 wherein the non-linear device of the
tester is a metal-insulator-metal diode.
13. The battery of claim 10 wherein the voltage divider of the
tester includes a pair of resistors having the same resistance.
14. The battery of claim 11 wherein the non-linear device of the
tester is a metal-insulator-metal diode and the voltage divider of
the tester includes a pair of resistors having the same
resistance.
15. The battery of claim 10 wherein the tester is in continuous
electrical contact with the cell.
16. The battery of claim 10 wherein a voltage potential at the
first terminal of the display is some fraction of a battery cell
voltage and a potential at the second terminal of the display is
determined by voltage across the nonlinear element and
resistor.
17. The battery of claim 16 wherein as current is drawn from a
battery due to use or leakage, the voltage of one of the terminals
of the display will vary with respect to the voltage at the other
terminal of the display.
18. The battery of claim 17 wherein the non linear device will
switch states causing the voltage at one of the terminal of the
display to become negative with respect to the voltage at the other
terminal of the display to cause a change in color of the display
to indicate that the battery is no longer within some defined
specification.
Description
BACKGROUND
[0001] This invention relates to battery testers that can be
incorporated on battery packaging.
[0002] Known types of battery testers that are placed on batteries
are so called "thermochromic" types. In a thermochromic battery
tester there can be two electrodes that are connected by a consumer
manually depressing a switch. Once the switch is depressed, the
consumer has connected an anode of the battery to a cathode of the
battery through the thermochromic tester. The thermochromic tester
includes a silver conductor that has a variable width so that the
resistance of the conductor also varies along its length. As
current travels through the silver conductor, the current generates
heat that changes the color of a thermochromic ink display that is
over the silver conductor. The thermochromic ink display is
arranged as a gauge to indicate the relative capacity of the
battery. The higher the current the more heat is generated and the
more the gauge will change to indicate that the battery is
good.
[0003] Sometimes the switch can be hard for people to depress and
it can become difficult to tell whether the tester worked or not or
whether the battery is good or bad. This can be confusing to a
consumer. Depressing the switch makes a direct relatively high
conductance connection between the anode and cathode of the cell
which can draw significant power and reduce battery lifetime.
Battery heat can also give a false indication of the state of
charge of the battery.
SUMMARY
[0004] According to an aspect of the invention, a battery tester,
includes a voltage controlled display, a first voltage divider
having a terminal coupled to a terminal of the voltage controlled
display and a second voltage divider having a terminal coupled to a
second terminal of the voltage controlled display. The second
voltage divider includes a non-linear device.
[0005] A major advantage of the tester compared to other testers is
that a consumer can merely look at the tester on the battery to
determine whether the battery is good or not. This tester
eliminates the need to hold the battery and depress a switch to
engage the battery tester. This tester although always on, uses
very little current and hence power. The tester may be more
efficient than prior testers depending on how many times a consumer
presses the switch on the prior tester. Over the lifetime of a
battery, this tester may use less current or be comparable to the
thermochromic approach.
[0006] The tester includes a voltage sensitive display and a
nonlinear element that could be a metal-insulator-metal diode
(M-I-M diode) or a transistor. The voltage sensitive display uses a
material that switches based on the voltage. The display does not
use a large amount of current so it would not significantly drain
the battery that is the power source for the display. The battery
tester, of course, does not have to be an "always on" tester. The
nonlinear element enables switching of the display to indicate a
good or bad condition.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0007] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a battery tester including
a voltage controlled, low power display.
[0008] FIG. 2 is a diagrammatical view of a battery incorporating
the battery tester of FIG. 1.
[0009] FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of an M-I-M diode structure
useful in the tester of FIG. 1.
[0010] FIG. 3A is a blowup view taken along line 1A-1A of a portion
of FIG. 3.
[0011] FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of an alternative M-I-M
diode structure.
[0012] FIG. 4A is a blowup view taken along line 4A-4A of a portion
of FIG. 4.
[0013] FIG. 5 is cross-sectional view of another alternative M-I-M
diode structure.
[0014] FIG. 6 is a flow chart of a process to manufacture the
device of FIG. 3.
[0015] FIGS. 7A-7D are plots of voltage vs. current showing typical
switching characteristics of M-I-M diode devices of FIGS. 3-6.
DESCRIPTION
[0016] Referring now to FIG. 1, a battery tester 10 is coupled to a
battery 11. The battery tester 10 includes a parallel circuit
including a display device 16 disposed between two electrodes 12,
14 that are in parallel. Electrode 12 is connected to the circuit
10 at a voltage divider provided by two resistors, 18 and 20.
Electrode 14 is connected to the other side of the parallel
circuit. The other side of the parallel circuit has a nonlinear
element, i.e., a switch 22 and a third resistor 24.
[0017] The display device 16 is an ultra-low current, voltage
controlled type of display. One type of device is an
electrophoretic display device such as described in "All Printed
Bistable Reflective Displays: Printable Electrophoretic Ink and All
Printed Metal-Insulator-Metal Diodes" Massachusetts Institute of
Technology June 1998 and provided by E-INK, Inc. Cambridge, Mass.
This type of display is based on so called "electronic inks", e.g.,
electrophoretic materials that change their properties based on an
applied voltage. Using electrophoretic materials such as electronic
ink, a flat panel display can be printed on a substrate material.
These displays draw very little current and hence dissipate very
little power. Any voltage sensitive material could be used as the
display. Another material that has similar properties is described
in "The Reinvention of Paper", Scientific American, Sept. 1998 and
is called Gyricon. Gyricon is also a voltage sensitive material.
The display 16 operates at voltages that are within the range of
the battery that the tester 10 is monitoring.
[0018] The non-linear device 22 can be any non-linear device. A
preferred example is a so-called Metal-Insulator-Metal diode,
(M-I-M diode) also generally described in the above paper.
[0019] A preferred M-I-M diode is described below in conjunction
with FIGS. 3-6.
[0020] The voltage potential at terminal 12 will always have, half
of the battery cell voltage across it if the value of resistor 18
equals the value of resistor 20. The potential of the electrode 14
is determined by voltage across the nonlinear element 22 and
resistor 24. The voltage at terminal 12 will start at a known value
depending on the values of resistors 18, 20 and 24. As current is
drawn from the battery due to use or leakage, the voltage of
electrode 12 will vary with respect to the voltage at electrode 14.
Since element 22 is non linear, at some point it will switch
causing the voltage at electrode 12 to become negative with respect
to the voltage of electrode 14. When the non-linear element
switches, this would flip the polarity on the display causing the
display to change color indicating that the battery is no longer
within some defined specification. The display can be wired into
the circuit so that it could either turn on or turn off to indicate
that the battery is no longer within some defined specification. In
either event the battery tester works on the principle that the
display exhibits a change in color when there is a change in the
status i.e., good to bad of the battery cells.
[0021] Since the battery tester 10 is a printed device, the
non-linear device can be provided with carbon ink based electrodes,
as will be described below. The resistors can also be carbon based
and include a filler to reduce the conductivity of the resistors to
make them more resistive. Ideally the entire battery tester 10
should have a very high total resistance, e.g., on the order of 15
meg-ohms. For a 1.5 volt cell that would provide a tester 10 that
draws 100 nano-amps (na) of current which is a low enough current
level to have a minimum impact on the lifetime of the battery. For
example, a "double A" cell with a 7 year lifetime, a 100 na draw
would consume only about 0.5 percent of the battery's capacity.
[0022] Referring now to FIG. 2, the battery 11 is shown having the
battery tester 10 incorporated into a label 32 that surrounds the
outer circumference of the battery 30. The tester 10 devices such
as, the resistors 18, 20 and 24 and the nonlinear device 22 (all
not shown in FIG. 2) can be printed using screen printing or
draw-down bar printing techniques under the label 32 whereas, the
display 16 would be printed over the label 32 or under a
transparent portion of the label 32. By visual inspection alone a
consumer can tell by the state of the display either or one color
or another whether the battery 30 meets or does not meet a
specified criterion such as charged or discharged. A state of
charged would be indicated by one color whereas a state of
discharge would be indicated by a different color.
[0023] Alternatively, the tester could be a manually activatable
tester using the voltage controlled display which is either
incorporated on the cell and activated by pressing contacts, or
incorporated into battery packaging.
[0024] Referring now to FIG. 3, a metal-insulator-metal diode 40 is
shown. The metal-insulator-metal diode 40 includes a first
electrode 42, e.g., a copper foil substrate or another conductive
material such as carbon or gold or other conductive materials such
as chromium, tungsten, molybdenum, or other conductive materials
such as metal particles dispersed in a polymer binder such as a
conductive ink. The metal-insulator-metal diode 40 further includes
a composite metal-insulator layer 44 comprised of metal particles
50 suspended in a dielectric binding layer 52. As shown in FIG. 3A,
the metal particles 50 have an intrinsic oxide layer 50a that
covers the surface of the particles 50. One preferred metal is
tantalum that readily forms an intrinsic, stable and generally
uniform intrinsic oxide layer 50a. Other metals can be used such as
niobium. These other metals should form oxides that are
self-limiting, stable, and having a suitable dielectric constant
for the application. One reason that tantalum is preferred is that
the intrinsic oxide layer forms readily on tantalum upon its
exposure to air.
[0025] Disposed on the composite metal-insulating layer 44 is a
second electrode 46 also comprised of e.g., copper or another
conductive materials such as a carbon, chromium, tungsten,
molybdenum, or gold or other conductive materials. The second
electrode is preferably disposed directly on the layer 42 to be in
contact with the intrinsic oxide layer 50a on the particles 50. The
second electrode also can be a composite layer including the
conductive materials and a binder. By varying the conductivity of
the electrode layer 46, the electrical characteristics of the
device 40 can be changed. Specifically, the I-V characteristic
curve can be made sharper to obtain a steeper on/off
characteristic. That is, the higher the electrical conductivity,
the sharper the curve.
[0026] As will be described below in FIGS. 7A-7D, the M-I-M device
has a symmetrical current-voltage (I-V) characteristic curve
exhibiting diode-like properties. The device also can be made to
have lower switching voltages than other approaches, e.g., less
than 10 volts and more specifically less than 1 volt to about 0.5
volts but with the same symmetrical properties. By varying the
ratio of the tantalum to the binder and also the thickness of the
tantalum-binder layer enables shifting of the I-V characteristic
curve for the same material up or down within a range of plus/minus
50% or more.
[0027] The switching voltage of the device 40 can be more
consistent from device to device. This may occur due in part to the
more consistent oxide layer thickness and quality of the
intrinsically formed oxide. The thickness of the tantalum oxide
layer 50a does not vary widely compared to thermal annealing or
anodized oxide layers. It is believed that the intrinsic layer 50a
also has a substantially uniform thickness from tantalum particle
50 to tantalum particle 50 that is on the order of monolayers of
thickness. Characteristics of the tantalum particles are that the
powder has a particle size in a range less than 0.5 microns up to
about 10's of microns. The printed layer 44 can have a thickness
less than 0.5 mils up to 8-10 mils. Other particle sizes and
thicknesses could be used herein.
[0028] Referring now to FIG. 4, another embodiment 40' of the diode
includes a layer 44' comprising inert particles 54 (as shown in
FIG. 4A) of another dielectric material such as particles 54 of
titanium dioxide TiO.sub.2 or magnesium carbonate MgCO.sub.3
dispersed within the polymer binder 52 and the tantalum particles
50 having an oxide layer 50a. In this embodiment, a portion (e.g.,
0% to 75%) of the tantalum particles 50 are replaced with inert
dielectric material particles 54 such as the titanium dioxide or
magnesium carbonate. The tantalum particles 50 can optionally have
an annealed oxide or other type of oxide layer disposed about the
tantalum although, the intrinsic oxide layer 50a alone is
preferred.
[0029] The addition of dielectric particles of e.g., titanium
dioxide solids to the polymer binder 52 and the tantalum particles
50 can improve printing of the layer 44', enabling use of lower
amounts of tantalum particles while still maintaining a high solids
content that would exhibit good diode properties. This would be
particularly desirable with very thin layers of the
metal/insulating material layer to avoid shorting of the two
electrodes 42 and 46 through the layer 44'. Including an inert
material reduces the probability of shorting and provides a more
consistent film/coating.
[0030] Moreover, at sufficiently low concentrations of tantalum,
devices may be provided with higher switching voltages. It is
anticipated that rather than using the oxide layer around the
tantalum particles to act as the insulator, i.e., the potential
barrier that electrons need to exceed in order to cause conduction,
the barrier would be governed by the dielectric properties of the
inert material, e.g., the titanium dioxide and the binder at the
lower concentrations of tantalum.
[0031] Referring now to FIG. 5, another embodiment 40" of the diode
has the first electrode 42 and the metal-insulating layer 44 or 44'
on the first electrode. This structure 40" may give similar diode
properties when a connection 58 is made to the metal-insulating
layer 44 or 44'. By eliminating the second electrode, the device
40" can have fewer layers, changing the fabrication process without
substantially altering the characteristics of the metal insulator
layer.
[0032] Referring now to FIG. 6, the device of FIG. 3 can be
prepared as follows: The process 60 includes mixing 62 tantalum
powder that is 99.97% pure, having the intrinsic oxide layer and
having a particle size less than e.g., 5 microns, with a polymer
binder such as Acheson, Electrodag No. 23DD146A, or Acheson
SS24686, a more thixotropic material. Both polymer binders are
available from Acheson, Port Huron, Minn. Other binders can be used
with the tantalum to form a tantalum ink. The binders should be
electrically insulating, stable with tantalum or the other metal
used and preferably have an relatively high e.g., 15% to 35% or so
solids content. The tantalum can be in a range of 100% to 39% of
the total weight of the binder. Other ranges could be used. The
tantalum particles and binder are mixed well to produce the
tantalum ink. The tantalum ink is printed 64 on the first electrode
e.g., a copper foil substrate or on other conductive material. The
layer is printed, for example, by either draw down bars, screen
printing, flexo or gravure printing techniques. The layer is dried
66, e.g., in an oven at 120.degree. C. for 15-20 minutes. A second
conductive layer such as chromium in the form of chromium particles
mixed in a binder material is printed 68 on the tantalum binder
layer. This chromium layer is also dried 40 at e.g., at 120.degree.
C. for 15-20 minutes producing the device 40. Thereafter, the
device 40 can be tested 42.
[0033] Alternative conductive layers or metals such as copper,
tungsten, molybdenum, carbon and so forth can be used for the first
and/or second electrode. The conductivity of this layer can be
varied by changing relative concentrations of conductive material
to binder. Exemplary ranges for conductive material are 30% to 39%.
By varying the conductivity of this layer, the shape of the
current-voltage characteristic curve can be varied, making it a
little sharper producing a diode having a steeper on/off
response.
[0034] Processing is simplified because the tantalum particles used
have an intrinsic oxide layer 50a. There is no need to thermally
anneal or otherwise thermally preprocess the tantalum powder. The
intrinsic oxide coating is very consistent in thickness and
quality. This tends to produce very consistent metal-insulator
layer materials and hence diodes with switching voltages having
relatively low standard deviations over a series of diodes.
[0035] Another advantage is that since there is no need to
thermally anneal the tantalum powder, the properties of the ink can
be adjusted to achieve various diode properties to fit different
applications. Ink formulation may be an easier process to control
than thermal processing of the tantalum.
[0036] This device could also be referred to as a varistor, i.e., a
thin printed varistor. This M-I-M structure is good for
applications that need a nonlinear element that operates at low
voltages and perhaps low current that can be printed rather than
using semiconductor deposition techniques.
[0037] Referring now to FIGS. 7A-7D plots of voltage vs. current
showing typical switching characteristics of M-I-M diode devices of
FIGS. 3-6 are shown. As shown in FIG. 7A, a current voltage
characteristic curve 74 for a M-I-M diode device exhibits a
switching voltage at 100 na. (nano-amperes) of approximately 1.8
volts, with an on/off ratio that is calculated to be about 33. The
current voltage characteristic curve 74 was obtained using a
Hewlett Packard semiconductor analyzer, Model No. 4155B.
[0038] This device used a tantalum layer that was prepared by
mixing 5 grams of tantalum particles obtained from Alfa Aesar, Ward
Hill, Mass. having a particle diameter of less than 2 microns, with
20 grams of Electrodag 23DD146A polymer having a 25% solid versus
75% volatile compound composition. The ink was coated onto a
conductive surface of copper foil using a 15 mil cutout i.e., to
produce a layer having a wet thickness of 15 mils. The sample was
dried in an oven at 120.degree. C. for 20 minutes. The ink for the
second layer of the diode was prepared by mixing 5 grams of
chromium powder with a particle size of less than 5 microns as
received from Alfa Aesar, with 4 grams of Electrodag 23DD146A and
was coated on top of the tantalum ink layer using a 5 mil cutout.
This coating was dried for 20 minutes at 120.degree. C.
[0039] As shown in FIG. 7B, the M-I-M diodes can exhibit different
switching voltages based upon different "P:B" ratios, that is,
different ratios of metal (e.g., tantalum) particles to binder. As
shown in FIG. 7B, for the same thickness of 15 mils, with P:B
ratios of 5, 2, and 1, devices exhibit switching voltages of
approximately 9 volts (curve 75a), 5.3 volts (curve 75b) and 3.8
volts (curve 75c) at 100 nano amperes.
[0040] As also shown in FIG. 7C, varying the wet thickness of the
tantalum layer can also produce varying switching voltages. With a
tantalum layer having a tantalum to binder ratio (P:B) of 8:1, a
M-I-M diode having a 15 mil thick tantalum layer would exhibit a
switching voltage of approximately 9 volts (curve 76a), a 10 mil
thick layer would provide a M-I-M diode with a switching voltage of
approximately 7.8 volts (curve 76b), and a 5 mil thick layer would
provide a M-I-M diode with a switching voltage of approximately 4.6
volts (curve 76b). Each of the switching voltages are measured at
100 nano amperes.
[0041] Referring now to FIG. 7D, addition of magnesium carbonate to
the tantalum layer can produce M-I-M diodes that have consistently
high on/off ratios with minimal impact on switching voltage. As
shown in FIG. 7D, as the amount of magnesium carbonate is
increased, the switching voltage characteristic becomes steeper.
The curve 76a shows the switching characteristic for a 100%
tantalum layer having a P:B ratio of 1:1 that exhibits a switching
voltage of 1.8 volts. Curves 77b-77d illustrate that as the amount
of magnesium carbonate increases, the switching characteristic
becomes steeper therefore indicating a better on/off ratio.
Other Embodiments
[0042] It is to be understood that while the invention has been
described in conjunction with the detailed description thereof, the
foregoing description is intended to illustrate and not limit the
scope of the invention, which is defined by the scope of the
appended claims. Other aspects, advantages, and modifications are
within the scope of the following claims.
* * * * *