System for communicating measurement data of fuel cells in a fuel cell stack by embedding measurement units on the plate

摘要

A system (10) for communicating measurement data from fuel cells (14) in a fuel cell stack (12), the system (10) comprising: a plurality of fuel cells (14) each generating a voltage potential; a plurality of stacking plates (20) having a stacking plate (20) between each fuel cell (14) and at each end of the fuel cell stack (12) to collect the voltage potential generated by each of the fuel cells (14); characterized by: a plurality of embedded smart plates (30), each embedded smart plate (30) being mechanically and electrically coupled to at least one of the plurality of stack plates (20) in the fuel cell stack (12), each embedded smart plate (30) comprising optical transceivers (30); 34) at the top and bottom of the embedded smart plate (30), each of the embedded smart plates (30) operating from the fuel cell stack (12) above the voltage potential of the fuel cell (14) adjacent the stack plate (20) to which the embedded smart plate (30) is coupled; and a first aggregator device (40) disposed at one end of the plurality of embedded smart plates (30) in the fuel cell stack (12) and a second aggregator device (40) at the other end of the plurality of embedded smart plates (30) in the stack, wherein the first and second aggregator devices (40) comprise at least one optical transceiver (34) for communicating with the embedded smart disks (30), the first aggregator device (40) initiating communication with the embedded smart disks such that the embedded smart disks (30) in series through the stack until the second aggregator device (40) completes the communication upon receipt of the communication from the last embedded smart disk (30) in the stack.