Micro Power Electronics announced that the U.S. Patent Office awarded it two new patents covering innovative design techniques and manufacturing practices for battery packs. These patents improve the safety and reliability of the portable battery packs produced by Micro Power for mission critical operations.
One of the newly issued patents is for Micro Power's redundant battery protection system and method covering an enhanced protection system, which addresses a potential weakness of a conventional protection system in a conventional battery pack. The enhanc
ed protection system includes both a primary protection circuit and a redundant protection circuit. The components of the redundant protection circuit are electrically coupled in parallel with the primary protection circuit. If the primary protection circuit fails, the redundant protection circuit will still operate to allow the enhanced battery pack to function. This patent ensures that battery packs will operate when called into action, even if there is a component failure that would typically fail a conventional battery.
The additional newly-issued patent is for Micro Power's electrical insulation system and method for power storage component separation, which includes an electrical insulation method for electrical separation of power storage components. This patent describes the use of polyurethane elastomer material to electrically separate various components of electrical power storage components within battery packs.
These components can include cells, connecting tabs, printed circuit assemblies, solder joints, nickel strips and other conductive members within the battery pack. This patent ensures the performance of battery packs when they are subject to abusive conditions such as shock or vibration.