Patent attributes
Described herein are systems and methods that allow for automatic detection of the highest available cell voltage and/or location of the top voltage in a battery stack, in real-time, without having to use separate, dedicated PCBs for different battery stack configurations, and without having to manually configure PCBs based on the number of cells each battery stack has. In certain embodiments, automatic detection is accomplished by a software-configurable battery management circuit that supports any battery pack size without the need to perform hardware modifications or the added cost of customizing boards for battery stacks that have different numbers of cells. In addition, a novel diode-OR analog multiplexer circuit allows the chip to be powered prior to the selection of the top cell.
