Abstract
High-capacity secondary batteries can cause explosion hazards owing to microcurrent variations or current surges that occur in short circuits. Consequently, complete safety cannot be achieved with general protection that is limited to a mere current fuse. Hence, in the case of secondary batteries, it is necessary for the protector to limit the inrush current in a short circuit, and to detect the current during microcurrent variations. To serve this purpose, a fuse can be employed for the secondary battery protection circuit with current detection. This study aims at designing a protection device that can stably operate in the hazardous circumstances associated with high-capacity secondary batteries. To achieve the said objective, a detecting fuse was designed from an alloy of low melting point elements for securing stability in abnormal current states. Experimental results show that the operating I-T and V-T characteristic constraints can be satisfied by employing the proposed current detecting self-contained low melting point fuse, and through the resistance of the heating resistor. These results thus verify that the proposed protection device can prevent the hazards of short circuit current surges and microcurrent variations of secondary batteries.