Double-tiered switched capacitor battery charge equalizer with chain structure

The switched capacitor equalizer is one of the simplest voltage equalizing methods. However this equalizer has disadvantages which are prolonged equalization time and large difference of equalization time caused by the position of problematic energy storage cell. This paper proposes novel switched capacitor equalizer which has the advantages of the switched capacitor with chain structure and the double-tiered switched capacitor. The proposed circuit has many paths of charge exchange, which reduces the equalization time and constantly keeps the performance above a certain level regardless of the position of the problematic cell. The performance of the proposed circuit was confirmed with simulation and circuit experiments.