Direct active cell balancing with integrated cell monitoring

In this study, an active battery balancing system is proposed, which allows direct energy transfer between arbitrary cells within a cell stack with simultaneous cell monitoring. The energy transfer utilises only one energy storage for the balancing process of the whole stack. Furthermore, the design enables the reduction of required sensors to only one voltage and one current sensor for full individual cell monitoring. The proposed system can be implemented in any battery application where cell balancing is mandatory, e.g. in lithium-based battery systems due to their strict operation limits. The proposed balancing system is validated through simulation and experimental measurements. The results confirm the proposed concept design.