Development of a Universal Adaptive Battery

Charger as an Educational Project

Heike Barth2, Christoph Schaeper1, Tim Schmidla2, Hannes Nordmann1, Martin Kiel1, Heinz van der Broeck2
Yusuf Yurdagel1, Christoph Wieczorek1, Frank Hecht1, Dirk Uwe Sauer1
1
Institute for Power Electronics and Electrical Drives (ISEA), RWTH Aachen University
Jaegerstr. 17/19, D - 52066 Aachen, Germany
2
Institute for Automation, Cologne University of Applied Sciences
Betzdorferstr. 2, D – 50679 Köln, Germany

Abstract - The number of small portable electronic devices between 48 Hz and 400 Hz. Furthermore it should provide
(such as notebooks, mobile phones, etc.) has risen galvanic isolation and charging currents up to 2 A. The
continuously over the last years. For charging the batteries special challenge in developing such a battery charger is
of these devices a mains charger is required. Unfortunately to detect different battery types with different cell
each portable device requires an own special battery numbers and to charge the batteries independently of their
charger which shows a low efficiency and a poor power polarity. In addition, the battery type (Pb, NiCd, NiMH,
factor in many cases. Li-Ion) and the cell number should be identified from the
terminal behavior only.
In order to solve this problem the IEEE has organised the
international student competition “Future Energy B. Student Team: Organization and Experience
Challenge 2007” aiming at the development of a highly The supervisors of the student team [*] decided to take
efficient universal battery charger. This charger should be part in the competition in autumn 2006 with a combined
operated at all AC voltages between 90 V and 270 V and it student team of the RWTH Aachen University and the
should be able to optimal charge four different battery types Cologne University of Applied Sciences. Finally, nine
(Lead Acid, NiCd, NiMH, Li-Ion) with an unknown number students were found [**] who were willing to spend a big
of cells. As a very challenging task the type and number of part of their spare time in the development of a universal
cells of the battery has to be determined by the terminal battery charger beside their study. The supervisors
behaviour of the battery only. prepared the team members during special lectures on
switch mode power supplies and battery technologies for
Within the paper the competition contribution of a
the competition. By visiting electronic trade fairs the
combined student team from the RWTH Aachen University
students contacted several companies which supported the
and the Cologne University of Applied Sciences is presented.
project by free software, components and devices.
This includes organisation, support and experiences of the
student team, design and development of the universal Meetings in Cologne and Aachen took place regularly
battery charger as well as measurements at the prototype. and the developing work was planned and split up so that
the students could do most of their developing work
I. INTRODUCTION independently of each other. Thus, the group in Cologne
designed the main power converter with galvanic isolation
During the last ten years the number of portable and the auxiliary voltage supplies. In Aachen the charging
electronic devices has risen continuously. Today, in most unit with the measuring system was built up. Furthermore
households at least one notebook, a digital camera, several the battery-detection algorithms were developed and
mobile phones and MP3-Players can be found. All these programmed in the microcontroller.
devices are fed by batteries which have to be charged
regularly by mains appliances. With each mobile device
an own battery charger is delivered which can normally be
used for this certain device only. In addition, many battery
chargers operate inefficiently and cause high stand-by
losses. The latter is especially problematic as many users
do not disconnect their battery chargers from the mains
after use. For the consumers it would be desirable to need
only one battery charger which can be used to charge
batteries of all portable devices. From the ecological point
of view this device should work at a high efficiency.
A. Student Competition
In order to find a solution according to this problem the
IEEE has announced the international student competition
“Future Energy Challenge in 2007” with the task to
develop a universal battery charger. This device should
operate with an almost unity power factor on all mains
voltages between 90V and 270V AC and frequencies Figure 1 Final version of the developed battery charger

978-1-4244-1668-4/08/$25.00 ©2008 IEEE 1839

During the first months only little progress could be
achieved, because the students had to familiarize
themselves with the different components and circuits as
well as with the software. Thus, only smaller circuit parts
were built up hand-wired. Many measurements on several
battery types were carried out using a professional charge
and discharge system. Not all attempts were directly
successful: Electronic components were destroyed by
overload or errors in the control circuit. The regulation
and control functions were disturbed by missing shielding
as well as by too long connecting wires. Only after several
redesigns the circuit parts could be realized on two printed
circuit boards during the final stage. These layouts were
designed by the students in Cologne (power supply: fig. 3)
and in Aachen (charging system: fig. 4) independently.
Figure 3 PCB layout of the PFC & flyback converter
The progress of the project work was documented in
two reports for the IEEE and was sent to reviewers in the
USA. In spring 2007 two team members were invited to
take part in a workshop of the Future Energy Challenge in
Anaheim, California. There they presented the progress of
the team and discussed the subject with other students
from Australia, Bangladesh, the USA, Brazil and China.
During the last months before the final competition in
Dallas most progress was done. In July both boards were
connected together for the first time and worked properly
The whole universal charger is presented in figure 1.

II. BATTERY CHARGER

A. Overall Topology and Control
Figure 2 shows the circuit schematic of the charger with
the most important components. The input part consists of
a rectifier with PFC function, which works in the
discontinuous mode. It draws a nearly sinusoidal current
from the mains after HF filtering (not shown in fig. 2)
Additionally, it regulates the DC link voltage U1 to
approximately 370V independently of the mains voltage.
As the second power stage a flyback converter is
applied, which generates a galvanic isolated and stabilized
output voltage Uo = 32V. Both converters are controlled
by the NXP Green Chip TEA1750. This IC minimizes the
switching losses by “valley switching” and by reduction
of the switching frequency at low load. During stand-by
mode the PFC function of the rectifier is disabled and the
flyback converter works in “burst mode”. Thus the stand-
by losses can be diminished to less than 0.5 W.
370V
Figure 4 PCB layout of the transistor H-bridge and the
measurement and PC unit.
Another loss reduction is achieved by the application of a
synchronous rectifier (T3) on the secondary side. Figure 3
presents the corresponding PCB with all mounted
components. The two SMD controller ICs are placed on
the bottom side.
The third power stage (Fig. 4) includes an H-bridge
consisting of four transistors. According to the polarity of
the battery the lower transistor of one half bridge is in on-
state and the current is regulated by the other half bridge
via the PWM unit of the microcontroller ADuC7026 as
well as by a current control circuit.
N1 N2 32V

L
L1 D1 Ra IB
C2

T4 Uo Uwr
U1
Im C1 N3 L1 UB

T1 T2
~ TEA1750 UB IB
Um T3 +15V FET driver
IC1
measurement

aux 15V
PWM
mains 32V supply
ADuC A/D
+3.3V
7026 D/A

Figure 2. Overall circuit topology of the universal charger

1840
 In order to detect the battery type a defined discharge
current of 2 A has to be taken for at least one minute.
This current is fed into the lower DC link Uo. The related
power can be used to supply the μC as well as the control
and measuring unit. If the discharge power exceeds the
need of the auxiliary circuits, the voltage Uo further rises.
At a value of Uo = 36 V the discharge power is taken over
by the bipolar transistor T4 mounted on a heat sink. In
worst case losses up to PV = 32 V · 2 A = 64 W have to be
dissipated in heat.
B. Performance of the PFC and the Flyback Converter
In order to combine the control and drive signals for the
PFC and the flyback power stages by one single chip the
Green Chip controller TEA1750 was applied. This new
advanced controller was introduced by NXP on the fair of
the APEC conference in Anaheim, the student team
visited after the IFEC07 workshop. In addition, another
controller IC, the TEA1761 has been inserted on the
secondary side of the flyback converter. The secondary
control IC allows synchronous rectification and provides
output voltage feedback control respectively.
Special functions of both controller ICs allow high
efficiency of the converter over a wide power range. This
is obtained by quasi-resonant or valley switching
operation at high and medium power and by reducing the
switching frequency for a low power load. At low power
levels and low mains voltage the power factor controller
Fig. 5 shows the voltage and the current of the mains
together with the discontinuous HF current in choke L1
for a mains period. It confirms the performance of the LC
filter.
The operation modes of the PFC depend on the value of
the mains voltage and of the load.
At low loads but higher mains voltages the PFC
function is deactivated. The corresponding curves
measured at a mains voltage of 220 V are shown in Fig. 6.
As can be seen the DC link voltage U1 at C1 is equal to
the peak mains voltage.
The normal PFC operation at different mains voltages is
illustrated in Figure 7 and 8. In both measurements the
converted power was about 50 W. As the power stays the
same, the mains current changes with the input voltage.
Nevertheless the mains current is in phase with the voltage
and shows an almost sinusoidal wave which leads to a
high power factor.
Furthermore the different operation modes of the
flyback converter will be described. The converter
basically stabilises and isolates the flyback output voltage
to Uo = 32V.
400
400 1
1
200 0.5

operates in burst mode control in order to maintain a high Uci

Imi
0 0
efficiency in the PFC part. Um
i

The boost converter is controlled by a constant on-time 200 0.5

method of transistor T1. The output voltage at capacitor
 400 1
C1 is stabilised to U1 = 370 V by adapting the on-time of 400
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
1

transistor T1 to the given load. The converter operates in 0 3 50

i ˜dt ˜10
the discontinuous switching mode. This means, the
transistor voltage Uds starts oscillating when the Figure 6. PFC deactivated: DC link voltage (U1=Uc), mains
secondary current becomes zero. In conventional DC-DC voltage (Um) and mains current (Im)
converters a fixed switching frequency and duty cycle is
set for a certain load point and the transistor is turned-on 400 1

at certain time instants, where the oscillating transistor 400 1

voltage may be high. This causes high turn-on losses. In 200 0.5

the new controller IC TEA1750 the transistor is only Uci

turned on at the minimum values of the oscillating voltage Um

i
0 0 Im
i

(valley switching) which reduces the switching losses and

EMI contribution substantially. 200 0.5

The triangular current of the boost converter is  400

400 1
1
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
smoothed by a small differential mode LC filter. In 0 3 50
addition, a common mode filter is inserted between the i ˜ dt ˜10

mains and the rectifier bridge. Figure 7. .Normal PFC operation at 120V: DC link voltage
(U1=Uc) mains voltage (Um) and mains current (Im

200
200 3
400 1
2 40 0 1
100
200 0.5
IL
i Uc
Um 0 0 i
i Im
Im 0 0 i
i Um
i

100 200 0.5

2

 200 3  40 0 1
200 400 1
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

0 3 20 0 3 50
i ˜dt ˜10 i˜ dt ˜ 10

Figure 5. Blue: Mains voltage (Um), Red: mains current Figure 8. Normal PFC operation at 220V: DC link
(Im) and Cyan: inductor current (IL) (U1=Uc), mains voltage (Um) and mains current (Im)

1841
Similar to the PFC, the flyback converter is either
operated in the burst mode (low power), in a frequency
control mode with fixed ton-time or in the critical
conduction mode.
In all cases valley switching is applied to reduce the
switching losses. This is illustrated in the measurement of
Fig. 9 which shows the voltage at transistor T2 and the
secondary current of the flyback converter. The period of
the flyback operation changes on each cycle to maintain
valley switching.
700
600
400
UT
i
200
 100
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
0
i ˜dt ˜10
6 20
Figure 9. Operation of the flyback converter: transistor voltage
(UT), and secondary winding current (I2)
The converter performance has been measured for a
mains input voltage of 100 V and 230 V RMS. In both
cases the output power was varied from zero to 64 W.
Under all conditions the output voltage was stabilised to
Uo = 32 V (Iout = 0 ... 2 A). The efficiency is above 85%
for a large power range.
C. Voltage Measurement Circuit
In order to detect the battery type and to charge it
properly the battery voltage is measured repetitively by
the microcontroller. The voltages of the battery lie in a
range between 1V and 32V and have to be measured with
a resolution of at least 5mV. This cannot be achieved by
using the 12 Bit A/D channel resolution. In order to
increase the resolution of the A/D conversion, a
programmable reference value provided by the D/A output
of the microcontroller is subtracted from the measured
voltage of the battery by a special operational amplifier
circuit. The basic function of this unit is illustrated in
Figure 10.
Figure 10. Voltage window fitting
The microcontroller sets an appropriate subtraction
voltage to fit the measuring window to the battery voltage.
The resulting signal (red curve) is now acquired by the
microcontroller. By means of this easy to implement and
cost effective circuit an improved resolution of two
additional bits is achieved. As a result an absolute
resolution of about 2mV can be obtained.
D. Battery Detection
The four battery types NiCD, NiMH, lead-acid and Li-
Ion need only two different charging regimes: Constant
6
6 Current (CC) for NiXX and Constant Voltage (CV) for Li-
Ion and lead-acid batteries. The goal is to detect the
4 correct battery type and the number of cells during the
charging process. For Li-Ion and lead-acid batteries it is
2
I2
i necessary to set a maximum charging voltage.
The identification algorithm has been developed using
high advanced battery test equipment at ISEA. Later it has
0
1
been adapted to the universal charger hardware and
20 implemented into the microcontroller.
After a system reset the four transistors of the H-bridge
are switched off to high impedance in order to measure
voltage at both connection poles. Once a voltage value
higher than 1V is detected, the controller determines the
polarity of the connected battery. Depending on the
polarity one inverter leg is connected to ground and the
other one is used to control the current with PWM.
The first step for detecting the connected battery is to
measure the open circuit voltage (OCV). This is done
when there is almost no further change in the voltage
value which may take a few minutes. Based on this
information, the possible number and type of the cells
connected in series can be achieved.
TABLE 1 OPEN CIRCUIT VOLTAGE RANGE PER CELL
battery NiXX Lead-Acid Li-Ion
V min 1.1 V 1.95 V 3.2 V
V max 1.35 V 2.15 V 4.2 V
Table 1 shows minimum and maximum expected cell
voltages for three battery technologies. Multiplied with the
number of cells the voltage ranges for all possible cell
combinations are calculated. These open circuit voltage
ranges are shown in Figure 11. For example an OCV of
12.4 Volt is within the voltage ranges of 3 Li-Ion cells, 6
Lead-Acid cells and 10 or 11 NiXX cells. The relative
“position” within this range gives a rough estimation of
the state of charge (SOC) of these particular cell
combinations. So the possible cell combinations are
assigned in three categories: Full, empty and medium state
of charge.
The charging process always starts with the constant
current mode. To avoid an overcharge of Li-Ion or Pb
cells a safety voltage limit has to be set. In case of three
Li-Ion cells the maximum charge voltage can be
calculated to U max 3 ˜ 4.2V 12.6V . This voltage limit
must not be exceeded as long as a Li-Ion battery can not
be excluded.
1842
 Figure 11 Open circuit voltage range for various numbers of series connected cells of the batteries to be detected
The second detection algorithm is based on the
difference in the open circuit voltage OCV after charging
and discharging. In order to measure the so called
hysteresis voltage the OCV has to be measured twice at
the same state of charge. This sequence is shown in Figure
12 and has to be performed by the charger. The sequence
starts with a discharge pulse to avoid a possible
overcharge of a full battery. Firstly, the battery is
discharged for a certain time (black curve). Afterwards,
the charger waits, until the voltage has reached a steady
state again (point A). Then, the battery is discharged again
for 30 seconds with 2A and afterwards recharged for the
same time with the same current. This leads to point B.
The state of charge between point A and point B is the
same, but as shown in Figure 12, the open circuit voltage
is different due to the hysteresis phenomena. This effect is
distinct for Nickel based batteries [1, 2].
Figure 12. Hysteresis measurement sequence
1843
If an empty battery is connected which can be detected by
a large discharge voltage drop, the hysteresis
measurement is carried out at a higher SOC. A set of own
experiment results shows, that the hysteresis voltage is a
function of the cell technology and capacity. Batteries
with high capacities show lower hysteresis voltages.
If a Ni based battery can not be detected properly by
the hysteresis measurement, the battery is further charged
with constant current considering the safety voltage
determined for a possible Li-Ion battery pack.
If the battery voltage decreases during charging (-dV/dt
criteria) a full Ni battery is detected and the charging
process is stopped. If the safety voltage is reached during
constant current charging, constant voltage charging is
applied until the current is almost 0A.
During searching for suitable detection algorithms,
other possible methods have been tested. One of them is
shown in Figure 13. During constant current charging with
1A, the charger applies short discharge and charge current
pulses of 2A for ten seconds.
Figure 13. Voltage response of current pulses
This is carried out in time intervals of ten minutes.
As shown in Figure 13, the corresponding voltage
response of a lead-acid battery is much higher at high
SOC [3]. The voltage response of the other battery types is
much lower under the same conditions. Therefore the
current pulses method is suitable to detect lead-acid
batteries. During this detection method with constant
current charging it is also possible to detect nickel-based
batteries when the voltage decreases.
III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
The input and output performance of the developed
universal charger will be shown by two measurements.
Figure 15 presents the output current response if the
charging current changes from zero to 2A. The
measurement has been taken by charging a battery pack of
10 NiMH cells which results in a battery voltage of about
UB = 14.5 V. The switching frequency of the PWM is
fs = 50KHz as can be seen by the inverter output voltage
Uwr(t) in figure 15. The rise time of the output battery
current (0 to 2A) is less than 150Ps.
35
32.5

30

25

UWRi 20

UBi
15
IBi ˜ 10
10

 3.438 5
0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65 0.7 0.75
0.2 3 0.8
i ˜ dt ˜ 10

Figure 15 Output current response. Time scale 50Ps / div Green

curve: inverter output voltage Uwr(t). Blue curve: battery voltage UB.
Red curve: battery current IB(t).

The next measurement shows the behavior of the mains

connected battery charger in a transient from charge mode
( I B 2 A ) to discharge mode ( I B 2 A )
In this case a 12 V lead-acid battery was supplied. In
figure 16 the battery current IB(t), the inverter input
voltage (DC link) Uo(t), the mains voltage Um(t) and the
mains current Im(t) is shown ( See figure 2 as a reference)
The time scale is set to 10ms/div and 4 periods of the
110V-50Hz mains are recorded as can be seen by the
mains voltage Um(t) (blue curve). During charging mode
the DC link voltage is stabilized to Uo = 32V and the
converter draws a sinusoidal current Im(t) from the mains.
In the discharging mode all auxiliary power is taken from
the battery so that the mains current becomes zero. In this
operation point most of the discharging power has to be
dissipated in heat in the transistor current source (T4)
which becomes active as soon as the DC link voltage Uo
exceeds 36V ( see brown curve in figure 16).
400
359.375

300
Figure 14. Detection algorithm
200
Um i
Figure 14 shows a flowchart of all applied detection IB i˜ 100 100
algorithms. After the startup the charger begins with the Uo i˜ 10
OCV measurement. The possible cell combinations as Imi ˜100
0

well as safety voltage limits to avoid overcharging of a 100

Lithium-Ion battery are set. This voltage limit remains
during the complete charging process, until a Li-Ion 200

battery can be excluded. Thus, in the worst case the  212. 5

connected battery may not be charged completely.
300
40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
40 3 120
i ˜dt ˜10

Figure 16. Measured current step: Mains voltage (Um), mains

current (Im), battery current (IB), link voltage (Uo)

1844
 IV. FINAL COMPETITION
The whole battery charger was successfully presented
to the jury by two students during the final competition in
the laboratory of Texas Instruments in Dallas, USA. The
work of the Cologne-Aachen team was recognized with an
award of 2,500 US $.
V. EDUCATIONAL BENEFIT FOR THE STUDENTS
The students involved in the project could use their
individual work on the battery charger for certain exams
or for a diploma thesis. Others supported the project as
collegial assistants. Although the amount of work
extended the demand of a regular thesis, the experience
gained within the project was worth it for all participants.
The students had already gathered information and
knowledge of power electronics or battery systems during
their former study. Though, special lectures were
established at the RWTH Aachen as well as at the FH
Köln to prepare and support the students sufficiently for
their participation in the Future Energy Challenge 2007.
The topics were chosen according to the different tasks the
students were working on at the two institutes. In addition,
students gained a lot of experience in soft skills: During
the competition the participating students had to give
concise presentations during meetings where complex
issues had to be explained in a comprehensible way. By
visiting electronic trade fairs the students learned how to
get in contact with companies which thereupon supported
the project by free software, components and devices.
Most students were attracted by this project since it
offered a unique chance to experience practical work and
teamwork; two aspects which most students often miss in
the regular study course in electrical engineering.
Participation in this competition enabled the students to
gain valuable experience for their later professional career.
The project work and the university collaboration in a
larger team as well as the international contacts will be
very beneficial for them in view of their future work in
industry. Apart from solving technical problems they had
been involved in project management, scientific
documentation and in the way of presenting technical
results.
VI. CONCLUSION
This paper presents a mains connected universal battery
charger which has been developed by a joint Aachen-
Cologne student team within the IEEE international
competition “Future Energy Challenge 2007”.
The universal charger operates under all AC voltages
between 90V and 250V and shows a high power factor.
The output of the charger is galvanically isolated and it
can be used to charge batteries with a settable controlled
DC current up to 2A. Three different battery types (lead-
acid, NiXX and Li-Ion) can be charged up to a maximum
1845
voltage of 32V. The type, the number of cells and the
polarity of the connected battery is automatically detected
from the terminal behavior within the charging process.
This also requires discharging cycles.
The probability of detecting the type and the number of
cells of the connected battery correctly was found to be
about 80%. This percentage may be increased by an
improved software. Depending on the battery voltage an
overall efficiency between 70% ( UB = 12V) and 80%
(UB = 24V) could be measured at the prototype which is
not yet optimized concerning minimum losses.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The team would like to thank all companies and
institutions which have promoted the project by
providing free components and devices as well as by
generous financial support:
Philips Research Aachen, NXP, Ferroxcube, NORWE,
MacService, LEM, Tecxus, Analog Devices and IEEE-
PELS, IEEE German Section, ISEA-RWTH Aachen,
Fak IME – Cologne University of Applied Sciences
[*] Supervisors: Prof. H. van der Broeck (IA FH Köln & ISEA
RWTH Aachen), Prof. D. U. Sauer (ISEA RWTH
Aachen), Prof. R. de Doncker (ISEA RWTH Aachen),
Dipl.-Ing. M. Kiel (ISEA RWTH Aachen), Dipl.-Ing. D.
Pingel (FH Köln)
[**] Participating students: Heike Barth, Tim Schmidla,
Andreas Anschütz, Raffael Kuberczyk (FH Köln), Hannes
Nordmann, Christoph Schaeper, Christoph Wieczorek,
Frank Hecht (RWTH Aachen), Yusuf Yurdagel (FH
Aachen).
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