CN114442740B

CN114442740B - Power supply module

Info

Publication number: CN114442740B
Application number: CN202011214743.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 古捷炜; 张家霖
Original assignee: Elitegroup Computer Systems Co Ltd
Current assignee: Elitegroup Computer Systems Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-11-04
Filing date: 2020-11-04
Publication date: 2023-11-21
Anticipated expiration: 2040-11-04
Also published as: CN114442740A

Abstract

The application provides a power supply module which comprises a battery pack and a connecting wire. The battery pack comprises a storage battery, a first circuit board and a first connecting terminal. The first circuit board is electrically connected with the storage battery and the first wiring terminal respectively. The first wiring terminal comprises a first high-potential port group, a first low-potential port group and a first socket port group. The first high-potential port group and the first low-potential port group respectively comprise a plurality of first high-potential ports and a plurality of first low-potential ports for transmitting electric energy. The first socket port group includes a plurality of first socket ports for transmitting communication signals. The connecting wire comprises a first male connector and a second male connector, and the first male connector is connected with the first connecting terminal in a pluggable and electric mode. The first socket port group is arranged between the first high-potential port group and the first low-potential port group.

Description

Power supply module

Technical Field

The present application relates to a power module, and more particularly, to a power module capable of pluggable conversion of connecting wires.

Background

In order to avoid disaster accidents caused by bad design or improper use of products, most countries and regions have safety regulations (hereinafter referred to as safety regulations) for various products, and the safety regulations are not completely the same due to the differences of geographic environments and voltages of the countries/regions. In order to ensure the safety of the battery, the battery is required to be sent to be checked before being marketed, and can be sold legally only after passing the security inspection and obtaining the security standard.

The safety projects covered by different countries, regions or different regulations are different, and common regulations include North America UL, european Union CE, china CCC and the like. Taking the UL 2054 and IEC 62368 safety inspection of a BATTERY PACK (BATTERY PACK) as an example, the cost of shipping is about twenty-thousand dollars. For products such as pen power, pen power batteries and the like which need to be sold across countries, a single model product often costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to perform various security checks in different countries.

Meanwhile, in recent years, the update speed of electronic products is faster, and in order to highlight the product image, a pen power plant manufacturer uses a notebook computer (hereinafter referred to as a pen power), so that the design of the appearance, the input port and the output port is inked, and the electronic products become sales points. However, the design adjustment of the appearance and the input and output ports requires the corresponding adjustment of the shape of the motherboard inside the battery pack, and thus the length or shape of the connection line of the battery pack must be changed accordingly. Because the connector in the battery pack, the wire rod, the circuit board, the storage battery and the variation of the appearance of the connector can influence the safety certification of the battery pack, even if the length or the shape of the connecting wire is only finely adjusted, the safety certification still needs to be carried out again on the whole battery pack, so that the cost for changing the design is extremely high, and the development of novel products is hindered.

For example, please refer to fig. 1A and 1B, fig. 1A and 1B are schematic diagrams of a prior art electronic device in which a first circuit board and a second circuit board in a battery pack are connected by connecting wires with different lengths. As can be seen from the figure, the battery 910 is electrically connected to the first circuit board 912 of the battery pack 910 in the prior art electronic device, meanwhile, the power connection point of the first circuit board 12 is soldered with a plurality of connection wires 914, and the end of each connection wire 914 is connected to a connector 915, and the connector 915 is electrically connected to the second connection terminal 21 of the second circuit board (motherboard) 20. If the second circuit board 20 shown in fig. 1A needs to be adjusted to the design of fig. 1B, the length of the connecting wire 914 needs to be adjusted, and the battery pack 910 needs to be checked again according to the current safety standard, so that the cost of changing the design is high.

On the other hand, in the battery pack 910, the CONNECTOR (CONNECTOR) 115 is directly soldered to the connection point on the first circuit board 912 through the connection wire 914 to be used as a part of the CONNECTOR, so the number of pins or ports of the CONNECTOR 915 must correspond to the number of connection points of the first circuit board 912 on the battery pack 910, taking the number of connection points on the first circuit board 912 of the battery pack 910 as 16 as an example, the number of pins or ports of the CONNECTOR 915 must also be 16, and correspondingly, the number of ports of the second connection terminal 21 on the second circuit board 20 must also be 16 as well. However, when the specification of the second circuit board 20 is adjusted, for example, when the number of ports of the second connection terminals 21 on the second circuit board 20 is adjusted from 16 to 14, the number of pins or ports of the connector 915 of the battery pack 910 needs to be correspondingly adjusted, which results in a change in the specification of the battery pack 910 and the need to re-perform the safety certification of the battery pack 910. Moreover, the security certification time is usually several months, so even a very small product specification adjustment can delay the time of the whole product to be released from the market, and influence the sales time.

Disclosure of Invention

The application aims to solve the technical problem of providing a power supply module which can separate a battery from a connecting wire, so that the battery does not need to carry out security certification again due to the change of the connecting wire. In addition, the power supply module provided by the application has special design for the first wiring terminal, so that the battery can correspond to more circuit boards with different specifications.

The application provides a power supply module, which comprises a battery pack and a connecting wire. The battery pack comprises a storage battery, a first circuit board and a first connecting terminal. The first circuit board is electrically connected with the storage battery. The first wiring terminal is electrically connected with the first circuit board and comprises a first high-potential port group, a first low-potential port group and a first socket port group. The first high-potential port group includes a plurality of first high-potential ports for transmitting electric power. The first low-potential port group includes a plurality of first low-potential ports for transmitting electric power. The first socket port group includes a plurality of first socket ports for transmitting communication signals. The connecting wire comprises a first male connector and a second male connector, the first male connector is connected with the first wiring terminal in an pluggable mode, the first male connector comprises a plurality of first pins, and the second male connector comprises a plurality of second pins. The first socket port group is arranged between the first high-potential port group and the first low-potential port group.

In some embodiments, the number of first high-potential ports and first low-potential ports may be the same. The number of the first pins is the same as the sum of the first high-potential ports, the first low-potential ports and the first socket ports, and the first socket port group is located at the central position of the first connecting terminal. In addition, the number of the first pins may be different from the number of the second pins, and at this time, the second pins are electrically connected to all of the first socket ports in the first socket port group, part of the first high-potential ports in the first high-potential port group, and part of the first low-potential ports in the first low-potential port group. The number of the first high-potential ports electrically connected with the first low-potential ports may be the same as the number of the first low-potential ports electrically connected with the first high-potential ports.

In short, in order to overcome the problems of high cost and long time consumption caused by the fact that the battery pack needs to be subjected to safety certification again after the design of the second circuit board is changed in the prior art. The application abandons the design of directly welding the connector on the power supply contact of the first circuit board of the battery pack through the connecting wire in the prior art, and changes the connecting terminal with the female end on the first circuit board, so that the battery pack does not need to comprise connecting wires when leaving the factory, and the safety certification can be carried out only on the circuit board and the storage battery part of the battery pack, even if the subsequent main board design is changed, the connecting wires with different shapes and lengths are needed, and the safety certification of the battery pack is not influenced. On the other hand, in one embodiment of the present application, the socket port group in the connection terminal used as the port is arranged in the middle, and the high potential port group and the low potential port group are arranged on the left side and the right side of the socket port group, so that the connection lines with different pin numbers can be simultaneously supported, and the versatility of the battery pack is further improved.

Other features and embodiments of the present application are described in detail below with reference to the following drawings.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present application or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings that are required in the embodiments or the description of the prior art will be briefly described below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments described in the present application, and other drawings may be obtained according to the drawings without inventive effort for a person skilled in the art.

Fig. 1A and 1B are schematic diagrams of a prior art in which connecting wires with different lengths are used to connect a circuit board and an external motherboard in a battery pack;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a portion of an electronic device related to a power module according to an embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing an interface connection relationship among a circuit board, a connection wire and a motherboard in an electronic device according to an embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of a connection interface of a first connection terminal according to an embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing properties of each port in the first connection terminal according to an embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a schematic view of a connection interface of a first connection terminal according to another embodiment;

FIGS. 7A-7D are schematic diagrams of various possible designs of the connection wire in an embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing connection relationships among a first connection terminal, a connection wire and a second connection terminal according to an embodiment;

fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of connection relation among a first connection terminal, a connection wire and a second connection terminal according to another embodiment.

Symbol description

1 electronic device 10 power supply module

110 battery pack 111 storage battery

112 first circuit board 113 first connection terminal

1131 first high potential port group 1131A first high potential port

1132 first low potential port group 1132A first low potential port

1133 first socket set 1133A first socket

114 connecting wire 115 connector

120 connecting line 121 first male connector

122 a second male connector 123 a wiring portion

20, second circuit board 21, second connecting terminal

211 second high potential port group 211A second high potential port

212 second low potential port group 212A second low potential port

213 second socket port group 213A second socket port

910 prior art battery pack 911 prior art battery

912 first circuit board of the prior art

914 prior art connection line 915 prior art connector

Detailed Description

The positional relationship described in the following embodiments includes: the upper, lower, left and right, unless otherwise indicated, are relative to the orientation of the elements shown in the drawings.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a portion of an electronic device related to a power supply module in an embodiment. The electronic device 1 of the present application may be, for example, a device including the battery pack 110 such as a pen-powered device, a projector, a cellular phone, or an automobile. In this embodiment, the electronic device 1 is a notebook computer. As shown in the figure, the electronic device 1 at least includes a power module 10 and a second circuit board 20. In this embodiment, the second circuit board 20 refers to a motherboard of a notebook computer, but the embodiment is not limited to a notebook computer, and the second circuit board 20 may be a motherboard of other devices, such as a mobile phone, a tablet computer, etc. The power supply module 10 may be used to supply power to components on the second circuit board 20, such as a cpu, a memory, etc., which is not limited in this embodiment.

The design of the power supply module 10 is explained below. The power supply module 10 includes a battery pack 110 and a connection wire 120, and the size and shape of the power supply module 10 are not limited in this embodiment. In practice, the battery pack 110 may be enclosed in a housing (not shown) of the power supply module 10, and the connection wires 120 are exposed from the housing. In one example, the housing is used to house the storage battery 111 and the first circuit board 112, and the first connection terminal 113 may be exposed from a specially designed opening of the housing, so as to allow the connection wire 120 to be connected to the first connection terminal 113 from the outside. The storage battery 111 is used for storing and outputting electric energy, and may be a common battery core such as a lithium ion battery (Li-ion), a nickel metal hydride battery (Ni-MH) or a polymer lithium battery (Li-polymer), and the storage battery 111 may be assumed to be a lithium ion battery in this embodiment. The first circuit board 112 is used for carrying and electrically connecting the storage battery 111 and the first connection terminal 113, and may actually include a charge-discharge protection circuit and an energy management circuit, which is not limited herein. For example, the protection circuit is used for overload protection of the battery 111 when the battery 111 is charged and discharged, and the energy management circuit is used for measuring the increase or decrease of the accumulated electricity of the battery 111, so as to calculate the electricity of the battery 111, communicate the battery 111 with an external device, and manage the battery usage. The functions of the protection circuit and the energy management circuit are not essential components of the present application, and can be selectively adjusted or omitted, so the present application is not limited thereto.

The first connection terminal 113 is used for connecting the connection wire 120. The first connection terminal 113 is a port (or jack) into which a plurality of pins (first pins) on the connection line 120 can be inserted. That is, the first connecting terminal 113 is a female terminal. Referring to fig. 4, fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a connection interface of a first connection terminal according to an embodiment. As can be seen from the figure, the first connection terminal 113 of the battery pack 110 includes a plurality of ports, and each port can be functionally divided into a first high-potential port set 1131, a first low-potential port set 1132 and a first socket port set 1133. The first high-potential port group 1131 includes a plurality of first high-potential ports 1131A for transmitting electric power, and the first low-potential port group 1132 includes a plurality of first low-potential ports 1132A for transmitting electric power. The first socket port set 1133 includes a plurality of first socket ports 1133A for transmitting communication signals. In terms of the configuration of the connection interface of the first connection terminal 113, the first socket port set 1133 may be disposed at a central position of the connection interface of the first connection terminal 113, and the first high-potential port set 1131 and the first low-potential port set 1132 are disposed at two sides of the connection interface, respectively. In other words, the first socket port set 1133 may be between the first high-potential port set 1131 and the first low-potential port set 1132.

More specifically, referring to fig. 5, fig. 5 is a schematic diagram showing properties of each port in the first connection terminal according to an embodiment. As can be seen in fig. 5, the first high-potential port group 1131 exemplifies a first high-potential port 1131A including 6 corresponding high potentials, and each of the first high-potential ports 1131A can be understood as a contact (indicated as batt+) corresponding to the positive electrode of the battery. Also, the first low-potential port set 1132 is exemplified as including 6 first low-potential ports 1132A corresponding to low potential, and each of the first low-potential ports 1132A may be understood as a contact (labeled GND) corresponding to the negative electrode of the battery, for example, electrically connected to ground. Therefore, the first low-potential port set 1132 and the high-potential port set 1131 are disposed on two sides of the socket port set 1133 and are disposed symmetrically. Here, the first socket port set 1133 includes 4 first socket ports 1133A corresponding to communication functions, and each first socket port 1133A is used to transmit system management data. Taking the design of fig. 5 as an example, the port 7 of the battery pack 110 may transmit a temperature signal (labeled TEMP in the figure), the port 8 may transmit a voltage signal (labeled VCC 3.3V in the figure), and the ports 9 and 10 may respectively correspond to other system management signals (labeled SMBDATA and smfcla in the figure). Of course, the present embodiment does not limit the function and order of each first socket port 1133A, and the first socket ports 1133A may be arranged in different orders and provide different functions.

In addition, referring to fig. 6, fig. 6 is a schematic view of a connection interface of a first connection terminal according to another embodiment. As can be seen, unlike the first high-potential port set 1131, the first low-potential port set 1132 and the first socket port set 1133 of the first connection terminal 113 shown in fig. 4, which are designed in a single-column arrangement, the embodiment of fig. 6 also demonstrates an example in which the first connection terminal 113 is arranged in a non-single-column arrangement, such as two columns shown in the drawing. In one example, the shape or arrangement of the first connection terminal 113 is not limited in this embodiment as long as the first socket port set 1133 is located between the first high-potential port set 1131 and the first low-potential port set 1132.

The design of the connection line 120 is described below. Reference is made to fig. 3, 7A-7D, which are schematic illustrations of various possible designs of the connection lines of an embodiment. As shown in the drawing, the connection wire 120 is used for electrically connecting the first connection terminal 113 of the battery pack 110 and the second connection terminal 21 of the second circuit board 20. The connection wire 120 is, for example, a flat cable with male connectors at both ends or various connection components capable of achieving the above connection effect. Of the two male connectors of the connection line 120, a first male connector 121 for connecting the battery pack 110 is referred to as a second male connector 122 for connecting the second circuit board 20, and the first male connector 121 and the second male connector 122 are connected via a connection portion 123. Since the connecting wire 120 is electrically connected to the first connecting terminal 113 of the battery pack 110 and the second connecting terminal 21 of the second circuit board 20 in a pluggable manner, parameters such as length and shape of the connecting wire 120 can be freely adjusted without affecting safety certification of the battery pack 110. For example, the connection part 123 of fig. 7A may be longer than the connection part 123 of fig. 7B, the connection part 123 of fig. 7C may have a bend, or the connection part 123 of fig. 7D may be of any given shape.

As can be seen from the above description, the wiring portion 123 of the present embodiment can be freely designed, so that the power supply module 10 is not affected by the specification adjustment of the second circuit board 20. In one example, the manufacturer who manufactures the battery pack 110 may not include the connection wire 120 when leaving the factory, and the customer only needs to see whether the specification of the battery pack 110 is appropriate, and then the connection wire 120 is assembled in the power supply module 10 afterwards. Thus, the battery pack 110 may be shipped to the customer independently and may be authenticated by an independent safety rule without being affected by the change in shape and length of the connection line 120. In practice, even if the specification of the second circuit board 20 needs to be adjusted, the design of the battery pack 110 will not be affected, and the battery pack 110 will not need to be subjected to security certification again.

The following can demonstrate how the present application addresses the problem of the second circuit board 20 being adjusted in specification such that the port/pin count needs to be adjusted together. In one example, since the first socket port set 1133 is disposed between the first high-potential port set 1131 and the first low-potential port set 1132, in practice, the number of ports of the second connection terminal 21 of the second circuit board 20 may be used as a standard when selecting the connection line 120. For example, referring to fig. 8, fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of connection relation among a first connection terminal, a connection wire and a second connection terminal according to an embodiment. As can be seen from the figure, the number of ports of the first connection terminal 113 and the second connection terminal 21 is the same and corresponds one by one, and is 16. Accordingly, the first male connector 121 and the second male connector 122 at two ends of the connecting wire 120 in this embodiment may have 16 pins, i.e. the number of the first pins is the same as the number of the second pins. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the first high-potential ports 1131A of the first high-potential port groups 1131 are electrically connected to the second high-potential ports 211A of the second high-potential port groups 211 in the second circuit board 20, the first low-potential ports 1132A of the first low-potential port groups 1132 are electrically connected to the second low-potential ports 212A of the second low-potential port groups 212 in the second circuit board 20, and the first socket ports 1133A of the first socket port groups 1133 are electrically connected to the second socket ports 213A of the second socket port groups 213 in the second circuit board 20.

Here, the first pin number of the first male connector 121 is the same as the sum number of the first high-potential port 1131A, the first low-potential port 1132A and the first socket port 1133A, and the first socket port group 1133 is located at the central position of the first connection terminal 113. Since the first pin of each first male connector 121 of the present embodiment can be electrically connected to the second pin of one second male connector 122, it is known that the signal of the first connecting terminal 113 can be completely transmitted to the second connecting terminal 21 through the connecting wire 120. In addition, when the number of ports of the first connection terminal 113 and the second connection terminal 21 is different, the number of the first pins may be different from the number of the second pins, and at this time, the second pins are only electrically connected to all of the first socket ports 1133A, but not electrically connected to all of the first high-potential ports 1131A and the first low-potential ports 1132A. Referring to fig. 9, fig. 9 is a schematic diagram showing connection relationships among a first connection terminal, a connection wire and a second connection terminal according to another embodiment. When the number of the ports of the first connection terminal 21 of the second circuit board 20 is adjusted to 6, the connection wires 120 with the pin numbers of the first male connector 121 and the second male connector 122 being 6 can be selected to connect the first connection terminal 113 and the second connection terminal 21. That is, the number of the first pins or the second pins of the first male connector 121 and the second male connector 122 of the connecting wire 120 may be equal to the smaller number of the ports included in the first connection terminal 113 or the second connection terminal 21. In connection, the first male connector 121 of the connection wire 120 can be connected to the central position of the first connection terminal 113, and particularly the whole of the first socket port set 1133 with the communication function is covered.

Since each of the first socket ports 1133A has a specific and designated function, all of the first socket ports 1133A need to be connected in order to avoid losing any one of the communication signals in the present embodiment. However, the number of the first high-potential ports 1131A and the first low-potential ports 1132A hardly affect the power transmission, and it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the power can be normally supplied only by having one first high-potential port 1131A and one first low-potential port 1132A. In other words, when the number of ports of the second connection terminal 21 of the second circuit board 20 is reduced, the connection wire 120 can still normally obtain the communication signal from the first socket port set 1133 at the central position of the first connection terminal 113, and obtain the electric energy from the first high-potential port 1131A and the first low-potential port 1132A at the two sides thereof. In summary, in the case that the connection line 120 of the present embodiment is connected to all the first socket ports 1133A and is connected to one first high-potential port 1131A and one first low-potential port 1132A, it is possible to supply power normally without reducing the communication function.

In this connection, as long as the connecting wire 120 is aligned with the central position of the first connecting terminal 113, the power supply function is not practically affected even if the outermost first high-potential port 1131A and the first low-potential port 1132A of the first connecting terminal 113 are not connected. With this design, when the second circuit board 21 is adjusted in specification (for example, 6 ports are left), the battery pack 110 is not redesigned (for example, the number of ports of the first connection terminal 113 is changed), and the original battery pack 110 can be used without adjusting the design. Of course, since the battery pack 110 does not change and the safety certification does not need to be performed again, only the connecting wires 120 with various pin numbers change, and the safety certification process can be simplified.

In addition, the ports on the circuit board of the battery pack 110 may optionally adopt a fool-proof design, which may refer to a manner of providing blind holes in the first connection terminal 113, the connection wire 120 or the second connection terminal 21, omitting specific pins, adjusting the profile of the component, or providing alignment bumps, so as to ensure that the first male connector 121 of the connection wire 120 can be correctly inserted into the middle portion of the first connection terminal 113. The mechanism for foolproof is not limited in this embodiment, and can be freely designed by a person having ordinary skill in the art.

In summary, in order to overcome the problems of high cost and long time consumption caused by the need of re-performing the safety certification of the battery pack after the design of the second circuit board is changed in the prior art. According to the application, the design that the connector is directly welded on the power supply contact of the first circuit board of the battery pack through the connecting wire is abandoned, and the connecting terminal of the female end is arranged on the first circuit board, so that the battery pack does not need to comprise connecting wires when leaving the factory, and the safety certification can be carried out only on the circuit board and the storage battery part of the battery pack, and even if the design of the subsequent main board is changed, the connecting wires with different shapes and lengths are needed, and the safety certification of the battery pack is not influenced. On the other hand, in one embodiment of the present application, the socket port group in the connection terminal used as the port is arranged in the middle, and the high potential port group and the low potential port group are arranged on the left side and the right side of the socket port group, so that the connection lines with different pin numbers can be simultaneously supported, and the versatility of the battery pack is further improved.

The above examples and/or embodiments are merely illustrative of preferred examples and/or embodiments for implementing the technology of the present application, and are not intended to limit the implementation of the technology of the present application in any way, and any person skilled in the art should consider that the technology or examples substantially identical to the technology or embodiments of the present application can be modified or altered slightly without departing from the scope of the technical means disclosed in the present disclosure.

Claims

1. A power module, comprising:

a battery pack, comprising:

a storage battery;

the first circuit board is electrically connected with the storage battery; and

the first wiring terminal is electrically connected with the first circuit board, and comprises:

a first high-potential port group including a plurality of first high-potential ports for transmitting electric power;

a first low-potential port group including a plurality of first low-potential ports for transmitting electric power; and

a first socket port group including a plurality of first socket ports for transmitting communication signals; and

the connecting wire comprises a first male connector and a second male connector, the first male connector is connected with the first connecting terminal in a pluggable and electric mode, the first male connector comprises a plurality of first pins, and the second male connector comprises a plurality of second pins;

the first socket port group is arranged between the first high-potential port group and the first low-potential port group.

2. The power module of claim 1, wherein the number of the plurality of first high potential ports and the number of the plurality of first low potential ports are the same.

3. The power module of claim 1, wherein the number of the plurality of first pins is the same as the sum of the number of the plurality of first high-potential ports, the number of first low-potential ports, and the number of first socket ports.

4. A power module according to claim 3, wherein the first socket port group is located at a central position of the first connection terminal.

5. The power module of claim 4, wherein the number of the first plurality of pins is different from the number of the second plurality of pins.

6. The power module of claim 5, wherein the plurality of second pins are electrically connected to all of the plurality of first socket ports in the first socket port group, a portion of the plurality of first high-potential ports in the first high-potential port group, and a portion of the plurality of first low-potential ports in the first low-potential port group.

7. The power module of claim 6, wherein the number of the plurality of first high-potential ports electrically connected is the same as the number of the plurality of first low-potential ports electrically connected.