Patents Examined by Demetries A. Gibson
  • Patent number: 10500676
    Abstract: An actuator utilizes a voice coil motor with one or more voice coil windings supported on a light weight moveable bobbin that connects at one end to move an object rapidly up to a small number of millimeters translationally along a system axis. The bobbin moves over a distal portion of a center pole of a stator, which supports the voice coil motor magnets. The pole, which acts as a flux path for the voice coil motor, also provides a thin film of air in a gap between the pole and the bobbin via an air path and corresponding holes at the distal end of the pole. The bobbin moves translationally relative to the pole on the thin film of air under the control of the voice coil motor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2019
    Assignee: FARO TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: Carl Brian Candiloro, Bradley Hunter, Kurt Sidor, Mark S Longmuir
  • Patent number: 10491082
    Abstract: A permanent-magnet electric motor includes: a rotor; and a rotational-position detection sensor configured to detect a rotational position of the rotor. The rotor includes: a rotating shaft; an annular ferrite magnet disposed on an outer circumferential surface of the rotating shaft; and a rare-earth magnet disposed on an outer circumferential surface of the ferrite magnet, and a length from a center of the ferrite magnet in an axial direction of the ferrite magnet to an end face of the ferrite magnet on a side of the rotational-position detection sensor in the axial direction of the ferrite magnet is longer than a length from a center of the rare-earth magnet in an axial direction of the rare-earth magnet to an end face of the rare-earth magnet on a side of the rotational-position detection sensor in the axial direction of the rare-earth magnet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventors: Tomoaki Oikawa, Mineo Yamamoto, Hiroyuki Ishii, Hiroki Aso, Junichiro Oya, Yuto Urabe, Takaya Shimokawa
  • Patent number: 10491056
    Abstract: A stator in which stator coils are formed by a plurality of unit coils arranged so as to be shifted from each other in the circumferential direction and each having: a first slot-accommodated portion; a second slot-accommodated portion; a first terminal wire extending from the first slot-accommodated portion; a second terminal wire extending from the second slot-accommodated portion and shifted from the first terminal wire by one line of a conductive wire; a terminal-side coil end portion; and first and second anti-terminal-side coil end portions, wherein the first terminal wire and the second terminal wire of the respective different unit coils are joined with each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Naohiro Motoishi, Hiroyuki Akita, Koji Kawamura, Akira Hashimoto, Hironori Tsuiki, Wakaki Miyaji, Koji Tamura
  • Patent number: 10483815
    Abstract: A rotor includes an iron core that assumes a cylindrical or columnar shape, and a plurality of magnets embedded in the iron core and equiangularly arranged with respect to an axis of the iron core. The iron core includes a first end surface portion, a second end surface portion, and a central portion disposed between the first end surface portion and the second end surface portion. Each of the first end surface portion, the second end surface portion, and the central portion has one or more gaps formed at positions thereof remoter from the axis of the iron core than the magnets. A third cross-sectional planar dimension of the central portion is greater than a first cross-sectional planar dimension of the first end surface portion and a second cross-sectional planar dimension of the second end surface portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventor: Atsushi Ishikawa
  • Patent number: 10483868
    Abstract: A power supply unit includes a rectifying module to rectify an alternating current (AC) voltage, a first bulk capacitor to receive the rectified AC voltage from the rectifying module, a first transistor coupled in series with the first bulk capacitor, an AC input monitoring circuit, and a current source. The AC input monitoring circuit holds the first transistor in an OFF state in response to a detection of an AC voltage dropout. The current source adopts an adaptive gate voltage to control the first transistor in response to a detection of the AC voltage being re-applied, and turns on the first transistor based on the adaptive gate voltage to limit a re-rush current within the power supply unit after the AC voltage is re-applied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 16, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: DELL PRODUCTS, LP
    Inventors: Padmanabh R Gharpure, Ashish Razdan, Mehran Mirjafari, Lei Wang
  • Patent number: 10468970
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method and to a circuit arrangement for limiting the starting current for intermediate voltage circuits that have at least one storage capacitor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 11, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2019
    Assignee: ebm-papst Mulfingen GmbH & Co. KG
    Inventors: Günter Haas, Alex Schneider
  • Patent number: 10468969
    Abstract: An electronic circuit (1), in particular DC-link circuit, has a high side DC voltage level, an input and an output, the electronic circuit comprising a DC-link capacitor (4), an inrush circuit (3), for limiting an input current to a predetermined level, connected between a supply line (6) of the DC-link capacitor and the input. The inrush circuit includes a charge resistor element (Rc), a switch element (9), connected in parallel with the charge resistor element, and a control (7, 8) controlling the switch element. The control is adapted to turn the switch element on when the input current falls below a predetermined current level. The control includes a trigger control element (8) adapted to detect a differential voltage across the switch element and to turn the switch element off when the detected differential voltage rises above a predetermined threshold voltage. A method is provided for operating the electronic circuit (1).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2019
    Assignee: GRUNDFOS HOLDING A/S
    Inventors: Jan Knudsen, Niels Høgholt Petersen
  • Patent number: 10447105
    Abstract: A subsea pump assembly includes a tubular conduit that has an upstream end plate and an inlet for flowing well fluid into an interior of the conduit. A power cable opening extends through the upstream end plate. An electrical submersible pump and motor are in the interior of the conduit. The motor has a motor assembly housing with an upstream end having an electrical insulator opening. An end connection secures the upstream end to an interior side of the upstream end plate with the insulator opening registering with the power cable opening. An insulated electrical connector is mounted in the insulator opening. A motor wire in the motor assembly housing joins to an inner end of the electrical connector. A power conductor extends from exterior of the conduit through the power cable opening and joins to an outer end of the electrical connector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2019
    Assignee: Baker Hughes, a GE Company, LLC
    Inventors: Arturo L. Poretti, Ignacio Martinez, Ryan P. Semple, James C. Clingman, Chad A. Craig
  • Patent number: 10411587
    Abstract: Unique systems, methods, techniques and apparatuses of a DC fault isolation system are disclosed. One exemplary embodiment is a power conversion system comprising a converter including a midpoint connection structured to receive AC power, a first converter arm, a second converter arm, and a control system. The control system is configured to operate the converter a fault condition mode in response to a DC fault condition, wherein the fault condition mode operates at least one full bridge cell of the second converter arm so as to interrupt current flowing between the midpoint connection and the second DC bus rail and operates the first converter arm so as to allow the AC power to flow between the midpoint connection and the first DC bus rail in response to detecting the DC fault condition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2019
    Assignee: ABB Schweiz AG
    Inventors: Li Qi, Helen-Xing Huang, Xianyong Feng, Jiuping Pan
  • Patent number: 10410774
    Abstract: Provided are a composite material having direct current superposition characteristics, low iron loss, and high strength, a magnetic core for a magnetic component and a reactor, the magnetic core and the reactor including the composite material, a converter including the reactor, and a power conversion device including the converter. A composite material includes a soft magnetic powder, a filler, and a resin portion enclosing the soft magnetic powder and the filler dispersed therein, wherein the filler has rubber and an outer circumferential layer that covers a surface of the rubber and that contains an organic substance, and the resin portion contains a thermoplastic resin.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2016
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2019
    Assignees: AutoNetworks Technologies, Ltd., Sumitomo Wiring Systems, Ltd., Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd.
    Inventors: Kazushi Kusawake, Atsushi Sato, Shigeki Masuda
  • Patent number: 10411586
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a circuit and a method for overcurrent control and a power supply system including the same. When the system operates normally, a reference voltage has a constant value. When a short circuit or an overcurrent occurs at an output of the system, the reference voltage will be pulled down,. When the system is recovered from the short circuit or the overcurrent state, the reference voltage increases slowly up to a steady value. A feedback signal of an output voltage follows the reference voltage and increases slowly. Thus, an overshoot of the output voltage can be effectively eliminated to avoid damages to the system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2019
    Assignee: JOULWATT TECHNOLOGY (HANGZHOU) CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Siopang Chan, Pitleong Wong, Yuancheng Ren, Xunwei Zhou
  • Patent number: 10404190
    Abstract: Technologies for communicating information from an inverter configured for the conversion of direct current (DC) power generated from an alternative source to alternating current (AC) power are disclosed. The technologies include determining information to be transmitted from the inverter over a power line cable connected to the inverter and controlling the operation of an output converter of the inverter as a function of the information to be transmitted to cause the output converter to generate an output waveform having the information modulated thereon.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2019
    Assignee: Enphase Energy, Inc.
    Inventor: Patrick L. Chapman
  • Patent number: 10374505
    Abstract: We disclose herein a power coupler for connecting AC or DC electrical circuits having different voltages, current or impedance levels. The power coupler comprise a first switching device; a second switching device coupled with the first switching device; a power transformer comprising a first core winding and a second core winding; a first capacitance coupled between the terminals of the first core winding; a second capacitance coupled between the terminals of the second core winding; and a third capacitance coupled between the first and second cores windings. The power transformer is coupled with the first and second switching devices. The power coupler is configured to reduce switching power loss using an adiabatic technique and by selecting appropriate switching time of the switching devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 6, 2019
    Inventor: John Wood
  • Patent number: 10361639
    Abstract: A main unit 2 and a subsidiary unit 4 include two inverters 6m, 8m and 6s, 8s, and PWM control circuits 26m, 26s, respectively. A changeover switch 20 operates to simultaneously connect the inputs of the two inverters of the main unit 2 and the inputs of the two inverters of the subsidiary unit 4 in series or in parallel. An imbalance detecting circuit 28 detects imbalance in the input voltages to the two inverters of the main unit 2, and provides the detection result to the PWM control circuits 26m and 26s. The PWM control circuit 26m controls the inverters 6m and 8m of the main unit 2 in accordance with the detection result supplied from the imbalance detecting circuit 26m, and the PWM control circuit 26s controls the subsidiary unit 4 in accordance with the detection result supplied from the imbalance detecting circuit 26m. The input current to the main unit 2 is larger than the input current to the subsidiary unit 4.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 2, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: Sansha Electric Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Saso, Takeshi Morimoto
  • Patent number: 10355587
    Abstract: There is described an electronic device, the device comprising (a) a power supply terminal for connecting to a power supply (130, 330), (b) a first circuit (110, 310) coupled to be powered by the power supply, the first circuit (110, 310) being susceptible to power supply noise within a predetermined frequency range, and (c) a second circuit (120, 320) coupled to be powered by the power supply, the second circuit (120, 320) comprising an open-loop capacitive DC-DC converter (323) having a switching frequency outside of the predetermined frequency range. There is also described a system comprising an electronic device and a reader/writer device. Furthermore, there is described a method of manufacturing an electronic device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2019
    Assignee: NXP B.V.
    Inventors: Jaydeep Dalwadi, Venkata Satya Sai Evani
  • Patent number: 10353417
    Abstract: A ripple pre-amplification based fully integrated LDO pertains to the technical field of power management. The positive input terminal of a transconductance amplifier is connected to a reference voltage Vref, and the negative input terminal of the transconductance amplifier is connected to the feedback voltage Vfb. The output terminal of the transconductance amplifier is connected to the negative input terminal of a transimpedance amplifier and the negative input terminal of an error amplifier. The positive input terminal of the transimpedance amplifier is connected to the ground GND, and the output terminal of the transimpedance amplifier is connected to the positive input terminal of the error amplifier. The gate terminal of the power transistor MP is connected to the output terminal of the error amplifier, the source terminal of the power transistor MP is connected to an input voltage VIN, and the drain terminal of the power transistor MP is grounded.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 3, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2019
    Assignee: University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
    Inventors: Xin Ming, Jiahao Zhang, Wenlin Zhang, Di Gao, Xuan Zhang, Zhuo Wang, Bo Zhang
  • Patent number: 10355576
    Abstract: A CPU determines an ON-time setting value with which the generating unit generates a PWM signal having an ON time that is closest to the ON time corresponding to a product of a reference period and a target duty cycle, and sets the determined setting value in the generating unit. The CPU divides the ON time of the PWM signal based on the determined ON-time setting value, multiplies, by N, the period that corresponds to a result of the division, and specifies a period settable value with which a PWM signal having a period that is closest to a result of the multiplication is generated. The CPU determines period setting values for N periods based on a quotient and a remainder obtained by dividing the specified settable value by N, and sets the determined setting values in the generating unit for each period of the PWM signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2019
    Assignees: AutoNetworks Technologies, Ltd., Sumitomo Wiring Systems, Ltd., Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd.
    Inventors: Makoto Higashi, Seiji Takahashi, Takenori Abe
  • Patent number: 10340797
    Abstract: A voltage regulator control integrated circuit includes constituent parts including an error amplifier circuit, a comparator circuit, a compensation signal generator circuit, an oscillator/one-shot circuit, a latch, and a current sense circuit. In a first example, the integrated circuit is operable in a first mode and in a second mode. In the first mode, the various parts are configured and interconnected in such a way that they operate together as a valley current mode regulator control circuit. In the second mode, the various parts are configured and interconnected in such a way that they operate together as a current-mode constant on-time mode regulator control circuit. In another example, a voltage regulator control integrated circuit has the same basic constituent parts and is operable in a first mode as a peak current mode regulator control circuit, or in a second mode as a constant off-time time mode regulator control circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 2, 2019
    Assignee: Active-Semi, Inc.
    Inventor: Masashi Nogawa
  • Patent number: 10333388
    Abstract: A control device and method for large power converters having a high number of power cells may contain power semiconductor switching elements, receive commands from a central control unit, and send information to the central control unit. The control device comprises multiplexer/demultiplexer device(s), which comprises an uplink port for connection to the central control unit, a plurality of downlink ports for direct connection to a communications interface of an associated power cell, and a communications control and management module. The communications control and management module may extract information from a transmit frame received from the central control unit via the uplink port, may feed this information to the corresponding downlink port for the relevant power cell , may insert response information received from particular power cells into a receive frame, and may send this via the uplink port to the central control unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 25, 2019
    Assignee: GE ENERGY POWER CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY LTD
    Inventors: Helmut Jebenstreit, Frank Wothe, Kai Niemann
  • Patent number: 10326376
    Abstract: A current fed active clamp forward boost (CAFB) converter can include a primary coil coupled to an input voltage and a main switch, an input choke serially coupled with the primary coil, and a clamp switch coupled to the primary coil, input choke, and a clamp capacitor. The main switch may operate to regulate an output voltage of the converter. The clamp switch may operate alternately with respect to the main switch, and the auxiliary switch may selectively couple a DC bus voltage to the primary coil. The converter can be operated in a CAFB mode if the input voltage is greater than the boost voltage threshold or in a current fed active clamp forward (CAF) mode if the input voltage is not greater than the boost voltage threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 18, 2019
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventor: Bogdan T. Bucheru