MH-60R Sonar NiCad Battery Reliability Improvement

Ridgetop’s innovative solution will improve the dependability and reliability of the battery system through monitoring and balancing the state-of-charge of the individual cells within the battery pack. This innovation will significantly reduce maintenance and unnecessary battery pack replacement costs for critical military applications. The primary reliability problem with battery packs can be traced to differences in the individual cells comprising the battery. Normally, only the aggregate overall voltage of the battery pack is measured, but the individual degraded cell is not isolated. In that case, no anomaly may be detected, but usage time can be greatly diminished. To avoid this problem, battery packs are routinely replaced even though they don’t exhibit any problems. This is a very costly procedure. Ridgetop Group will design an innovative application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)-based solution that will monitor and control the charging of each cell in a 20-cell series-connected battery pack. The Intelligent Control Module ASIC will also provide important prognostic and usage/lifetime feedback to the user and maintenance personnel.