Patent Application
20080020257
The above objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent with reference to the appended drawings wherein:
The printed circuit substrate 100 may adopt a FR4 substrate, an epoxy resin substrate, a glass fiber substrate, a ceramic substrate, a polymeric plastic substrate, or a composite substrate. The memory device 12 is provided to record the identification data of the fuel cell board 10. The memory device 12 serves as an electronic label for the fuel cell board 10. An exemplar of the memory device 12 may be a semiconductor memory, such as a non-volatile memory like erasable programmable read only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM), and flash memory. Or, the memory device 12 may include both non-volatile memory and volatile memory. Volatile memories may be dynamic random access memories (DRAM) and static random access memories (SRAM). Alternatively, the memory device 12 may be a controller with a built-in memory component.
The identification data may include, for example, power of a single MEA, types of fuels, required specifications, production records, factory data, specifications of peripherals, and so on. Those illustrations are merely exemplary, and not intended to limit the scope of the identification data. Because the fuel cell device 1 possesses the mechanism for identifying data, an external device can know the specifications of the fuel cell board 10 well via the mechanism of identifying data, and also select other elements with proper specifications via the mechanism for identifying data, such as adequate types of fuels, or types and specifications of equipment that is suitable for the fuel cell board 10.
Aside from the aforementioned identification data, the memory device 12 stores event data occurring during the operation of a fuel cell board. The event data may include, for example, present output voltage, present output current, present temperature, operational time, and present fuel concentration, and so forth. Those illustrations are merely exemplary, and not intended to limit the scope of the event data.
The electrical interface 104 is used to connect an external device with the fuel cell board 10, and to transmit electrical signals corresponding to the identification data and the event data. The fuel cell board 10 may transmit data outward or exchange data in duplex through the electrical interface 104. The electrical interface 104 may adopt a universal serial bus (USB) interface, IEEE 1394 interface, SDIO interface, Bluetooth interface, RS-232 interface, RU-486 interface, infrared transmission interface, RF communication interface, or combination thereof. The electrical interface 104 may be connected by, for example, a connector or a gold finger.
According to an example of the fuel cell device 1 of the invention, due to the identification mechanism of the fuel cell device 1, as the fuel cell board 10 is connected to a notebook computer through a USB interface 104, the fuel cell device 1 supplies power for the operation of the notebook computer, and the notebook computer reads the identification data and event data from the memory device 12, such that the notebook computer manages electricity more precisely to extend its working duration.
In the second embodiment, the printed circuit board 2 may be used as an additional externally-connected board for the fuel cell board 10. Accordingly, the additional externally-connected board may be applied to various fuel cell boards 10 after the memory device 12 of the printed circuit board 2 stores corresponding identification data regarding fuel cell boards 10 with different specifications.
A fuel cell device with an electronic identification mechanism can perform the function of identifying data, and hence it may raise its own value. Also, the fuel cell device is capable of providing information externally, and thus it is more convenient and accurate to select components to assemble the fuel cell device.
While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to the preferred embodiments thereof, these are, of course, merely examples to help clarify the invention and are not intended to limit the invention. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes, modifications, and alterations in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, as set forth in the following claims.
