CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority to and the benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 2017-94215 filed in the Japanese Patent Office on May 10, 2017, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

Field of the Disclosure

The present disclosure relates to a control module to which a battery module is connected, and in particular, to such a combined unit of the control module and battery module mounted in, by way of example, in a vehicle.

Description of the Related Art

Patent document 1 discloses a battery power source device that is provided with a battery pack, and a charge/discharge circuit unit. The battery pack is provided with two battery holders that accommodate a required number of the battery modules in which a plurality of single batteries (battery cells) are connected to each other in series. The charge/discharge circuit unit accommodates a relay, a current sensor, and the like. The battery power source device disclosed in patent document 1 outputs driving electric power to an electric motor.

[Patent Document 1] JP-B 4117655

The above information disclosed in this Background section is only to enhance the understanding of the background of the disclosure and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

In recent years, as demand of a hybrid vehicle and an electric vehicle dramatically increases, a development of a high output motor has been in progress. Accordingly, along with the development of the high output motor, a battery module provided with high output performance and high capacity performance that is capable of supplying driving electric power to the motor has been continuously in development. In consideration of the aforementioned development, a size of the battery module has a tendency to increase so as to achieve required performance thereof.

As described above, the battery power source device is provided with the charge/discharge circuit unit as well as the battery pack including the battery module. With respect to an increase in the size of the battery module, if the charge/discharge circuit unit can be made smaller in its size, it may be possible to suppress a size of the battery power source device from increasing. However, in such a construction, a distance between a relay and a current sensor, which are accommodated in the charge/discharge circuit unit, become shorter. Hence, the current sensor is apt to be influenced by factors such as electromagnetic noise which will occur when relay connections are switched over.

SUMMARY

With consideration of such circumstances, it is thus desired to provide a control module whose body size is suppressed form being larger and which can be protected more steadily from being influenced by the electromagnetic noise.

An exemplary embodiment provides a control module that is arranged side by side with a battery module including battery stacks in which a plurality of battery cells are arranged in a longitudinal direction that is orthogonal to a height direction ranging from an upper end surface on which electrodes of the battery cells are provided, to a lower end surface that is disposed at an opposite side of the upper end surface, the control module comprising: a bus bar by which the battery module and an electric load are electrically connected to each other; a switch by which an electrical connection between the bus bar and the electric load is switched on and off; a current sensor by which a current of the bus bar is detected; and a shielding part.

In this configuration, the current sensor is configured to detect current passing through the bus par by converting, to an electrical signal, a magnetic field generated by the current passing though the bus bar. The switch is configured to generate a magnetic field to switch over connections between the bus bar and the electric load based on the generated magnetic field. The shielding part is arranged between the current sensor and the switch.

In this way, the shielding part is arranged between the current sensor and the switch. Hence, when a distance between the current sensor and the switch becomes shorter by making the body size of the control module, a magnetic field caused at the switch is reduced or suppressed from passing the current sensor. Hence it is possible to prevent the current sensor from having a reduced detection accuracy attributable to the shortened distance between the current sensor and the switch.

Further, the elements described in detailed description of the embodiments are marked with symbols. The symbols such as a numeral and a letter of the alphabet are used in the specification so as to simply indicate the correspondence relationship between each element in the exemplary embodiments, and are not intended to necessarily indicate element itself described in the exemplary embodiments. The symbols used herein are not intended to limit the scope of the claims.

