Charge/discharge protection circuit

A charge/discharge protection circuit for a battery comprising at least one rechargeable cell (1), with a control logic (6), which opens or closes a load current switch depending on the magnitude of the voltage at the battery terminals (+ Batt), the voltage at the charge/discharge terminals (50, 60) of the protection circuit, and the charge or discharge current. The control logic (6) comprises an over-voltage detector (OVD), which generates a control signal (F3) when reaching a voltage limit which depends on the electric strength as determined by the protection circuit. The control signal closes a short-circuit switch (12), which connects the battery terminals via a fusible link (11) in series with a load current switch. The protection circuit is characterized, that a series circuit comprising the load current switch (10 [1:n]) and the fusible link (11 [1:n]) is designed for a fraction 1/n of the nominal current and where n of such series circuits are shunted in parallel. The short-circuit switch comprises n switch segments (12 [1:n]), each of which coupled between the node of the load current switch and the fusible link of the series circuit x (x = 1, 2...n) and the opposite battery connection (Com). The over-voltage detector (OVD) creates for each switch segment (12 [1:n]) in sequential succession a separate control signal (F3 [1:n]), There is disposed a semiconductor switch (7, 8) in parallel to the charge/discharge terminals (50, 60) of the protection circuit, which the over-voltage detector (OVD) switches conductively when reaching the predetermined voltage limit.