This application claims priority to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2020-0118359 filed Sep. 15, 2020, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
The following disclosure relates to a sensing assembly for measuring a voltage of a battery cell and a battery module to which the sensing assembly is applied.
A secondary battery is a device that converts external electrical energy into chemical energy, stores the chemical energy, and generates electricity when needed. The secondary battery has been used in various fields such as electronic devices that use electric power, hybrid vehicles, and electric vehicles.
The secondary battery is manufactured in the form of a battery module in which a plurality of battery cells are stacked in one direction. The sensing assembly senses a voltage by electrically connecting cell tabs formed on both sides of the battery cell to sense the voltage of the battery cell included in the battery module.
As illustrated in
In the battery cell stack 22 illustrated in
As illustrated in
The front member 11 illustrated in
In addition, a fuse is installed on the sensing line connected through the sensing leg 16 and the first substrate 14 to block the flow of current when an excessive current flows. There is a problem in that such a fuse complicates a component assembly process, relatively increases a weight, and incurs additional cost.
[Patent Document]
Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 10-2018-0022445
An embodiment of the present invention is directed to providing a sensing assembly and a battery module capable of having a relatively low weight, simplifying a component assembly process, reducing manufacturing cost, and preventing a sensing leg from being damaged due to an assembly step or an external force.
In one general aspect, a sensing assembly, comprising: a first substrate formed of a rigid printed circuit board and including at least one first terminal and at least one second terminal on one surface, a second substrate formed of a flexible printed circuit board and including at least one sensing line electrically connected to the first terminal and a sensing leg having one end electrically connected to the second terminal and including a fuse part configured to disconnect when an over current flows.
The sensing leg may be formed of a flexible printed circuit board.
The fuse part may be an electrical line printed on the sensing leg, and a width of one end and the other end of the electrical line may be thicker than that of a middle portion connecting the one end and the other end of the electrical line.
The middle portion may have a curved shape.
The sensing assembly may further include: a first electrical connection part provided between one end of the second substrate and the first substrate and electrically connecting the sensing line and the first terminal; and a second electrical connection part provided between one end of the sensing leg and the first substrate and electrically connecting the fuse part and the second terminal.
At least one of the first electrical connection part and the second electrical connection part may be a soldering part formed by soldering.
At least one of the first electrical connection part and the second electrical connection part may be a bonding part bonded with an electrically conductive film.
At least one of the first electrical connection part and the second electrical connection part may be a welding part welded by laser welding or ultrasonic welding.
In another general aspect, A battery module, comprising: a battery cell stack formed of a plurality of battery cells, a bus bar coupling member coupled to both sides of the battery cell stack and a sensing assembly coupled to the bus bar coupling member to sense a voltage of the battery cell, wherein the sensing assembly includes: a first substrate formed of a rigid printed circuit board and including at least one first terminal and at least one second terminal on one surface, a second substrate formed of a flexible printed circuit board and including at least one sensing line electrically connected to the first terminal and a sensing leg having one end electrically connected to the second terminal and including a fuse part configured to disconnect when an over current flows.
The sensing leg may be formed of the flexible printed circuit board.
The fuse part may be an electrical line printed on the sensing leg, and a width of one end and the other end of the electrical line may be thicker than that of a middle portion connecting the one end and the other end of the electrical line.
The middle portion may have a curved shape.
The battery module may further include: a first electrical connection part provided between one end of the second substrate and the first substrate and electrically connecting the sensing line and the first terminal; and a second electrical connection part provided between one end of the sensing leg and the first substrate and electrically connecting the fuse part and the second terminal.
At least one of the first electrical connection part and the second electrical connection part may be a soldering part formed by soldering.
At least one of the first electrical connection part and the second electrical connection part may be a bonding part bonded with an electrically conductive film.
At least one of the first electrical connection part and the second electrical connection part may be a welding part welded by laser welding or ultrasonic welding.
Hereinafter, a sensing assembly and a battery module including the same according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The accompanying drawings are provided by way of example in order to sufficiently transfer the spirit of the present invention to those skilled in the art, and the present invention is not limited to the accompanying drawing provided below, but may be implemented in another form.
As illustrated in
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A first terminal 121 and a second terminal 122 may be formed on one surface (surface illustrated in
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Conventionally, there was a case of using both the RPCB and FPCB, but the conventional method is a method of forming a connector on each of the RPCB and FPCB, and connecting the connectors formed on each of the RPCB and FPCB to each other to use the FPCB and the RPCB together. In this method, the process of electrically connecting the connector and the RPCB and the process of electrically connecting the connector and the FPCB are further included, resulting in an increase in production cost compared to the present embodiment.
On the other hand, in the present embodiment, the first substrate 100 and the second substrate 200 are directly connected using the soldering without a separate connector, thereby reducing the production cost and also simplifying the production process compared to the conventional method described above. The method of forming the soldering part 110 through the soldering may be a method of disposing the second substrate 200 on one surface of the first substrate 100 so that the first terminal 121 and the sensing line L come into contact with each other, applying a solder paste to a portion where the first terminal 121 and the sensing line L come into contact with each other, and then exposing the first substrate 100 and the second substrate 200 to a heated space like a kind of oven for a predetermined time, or applying hot air to a portion to which the solder paste is applied. In this way, since the soldering part 110 can be formed on the plurality of first substrates 100 and the second substrate 200 at the same time, mass productivity may be improved.
In the present invention, the method for connecting the first terminal 121 and the sensing line L is not limited to the above-described soldering method, but there may be a method of forming a bonding part through an electrically conductive film, or forming a welding part using ultrasonic welding or laser welding to electrically connect the first terminal 121 and the sensing line L to each other and form the first electrical connection part. Here, the electrically conductive film means a film capable of electrically connecting two members to which the film is attached to each other, and as an example of the electrically conductive film, there may be an anisotropic conductive film (hereinafter referred to as ACF). After the ACF is disposed between the two members to be electrically connected, the bonding part is formed as the first electrical connection part by pressing and heating the stacked two members and the ACF, thereby electrically connecting the two different members. A detailed method of using the ACF in the present invention will be described later.
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
The method of forming a second electrical connection part for electrically connecting the sensing leg 300 and the second terminal 122 may be a method of forming a soldering part using soldering like the method of forming the first electrical connection part between the first substrate 100 and the second substrate 200 in the present embodiment. However, in the present invention, the method of electrically connecting the sensing leg 300 and the second terminal of the first substrate 100 is not limited to the soldering, and the bonding part may be formed using an electrically conductive film, or the welding part may be formed using ultrasonic welding or laser welding. After one surface of the sensing leg 300 also faces one surface of the first substrate 100, the second electrical connection part may be formed using at least one of the soldering, the electrically conductive film, the ultrasonic welding, and the laser welding to electrically connect the sensing leg 300 and the first substrate 100 to each other, which is to increase the bonding force between the sensing leg 300 and the first substrate 100.
The sensing line formed on the second substrate 200 of the present invention, the first terminal 121 and the second terminal 122 formed on the first substrate 100, and the sensing leg 300 may be electrically connected to each other, and it is possible to sense the voltage, temperature, and the like of the battery cell through this electrical connection.
As illustrated in
The welding which is a method of connecting the other end of the sensing leg 300 and the bus bar, and the soldering for coupling the first substrate 100 and the second substrate 200 may share a significant part of the process, so convenience and economic feasibility may be improved in manufacturing the sensing assembly according to the embodiment of the present invention.
When the method of electrically connecting the first substrate 100 and the second substrate 200 in the present invention is a method other than the soldering, by replacing the same method of electrically bonding the first substrate 100 and the sensing leg 300 with the method of electrically bonding the first substrate 100 and the second substrate 200 to each other, even if a method other than the soldering is used, convenience and economic feasibility may be improved in manufacturing the sensing assembly according to the embodiment of the present invention.
First, in the method illustrated in
The method illustrated in
On the other hand, since the sensing leg 300 of the present invention illustrated in
As illustrated in
Hereinafter, a method of manufacturing a sensing assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The method of manufacturing a sensing assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention may include steps a) and b). In step a), the pair of first substrates 100 each having at least one first terminal 121 formed on one surface are disposed to be spaced apart from each other, and in step b), the sensing line L is formed, the second substrate formed of the flexible circuit board is disposed between the first substrates 100, and the sensing line L and the first terminal 121 are electrically connected to form the first electrical connection part.
As described above, the first electrical connection part is formed using various methods such as the soldering, the electrically conductive film, the ultrasonic welding, and the laser welding, and the sensing line L and the first terminal 121 may be electrically connected. A method of electrically connecting the sensing line L and the first terminal 121 using the soldering has already been described, and in the present embodiment, the connection method using ACF, which is a kind of electrically conductive film, will be described.
The method of manufacturing a sensing assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention may further include steps c).
As illustrated in
Step c) may be performed regardless of the order of steps a) and b) described above. That is, after the sensing leg 300 is electrically connected to the first substrate 100, the first substrate 100 and the second substrate 200 may be electrically connected to each other.
According to a sensing assembly and a battery module according to the present invention as described above, a sensing leg coupled to a bus bar of the battery module to sense a voltage of a battery cell is formed of a flexible circuit board, thereby preventing the sensing leg from being damaged due to an assembly step or an external force.
In addition, since the fuse part is patterned on the sensing leg, it is possible to reduce weight, simplify a manufacturing process, and reduce manufacturing cost, compared to the conventional method in which a separate fuse is provided.
Although the present invention has been described with reference to the exemplary embodiments and the accompanying drawings, it is not limited to the above-mentioned exemplary embodiments but may be variously modified and changed from the above description by those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains. Therefore, the scope and spirit of the present invention should be understood only by the following claims, and all of the equivalences and equivalent modifications to the claims are intended to fall within the scope and spirit of the present invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10-2020-0118359 | Sep 2020 | KR | national |