Patents Examined by Yusef Ahmed
  • Patent number: 11626792
    Abstract: An inverter includes a DC/DC converter which converts a direct current received from a DC voltage source into an intermediate circuit voltage of an intermediate circuit, a DC/AC converter which converts the intermediate circuit voltage into an AC voltage, and a monitoring unit which monitors capacitors of the intermediate circuit for protection against overvoltages. If an overvoltage occurs at one of the capacitors of the intermediate circuit the overvoltage unit decouples the DC voltage source from the intermediate circuit by actuating the DC/DC converter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2023
    Assignee: Fronius International GmbH
    Inventors: Friedrich Oberzaucher, Gerhard Wallisch, Joachim Danmayr, Andreas Luger
  • Patent number: 11611279
    Abstract: A controller configured for use in a power converter. The controller includes a control circuit coupled to receive an input line voltage sense signal representative of an input voltage of the power converter. The control circuit is configured to generate a control signal in response to a request signal representative of an output of the power converter. The control signal represents a delay time to turn on a power switch after a turn on of a clamp switch in response to the input line voltage sense signal. The control circuit can further generate a clamp drive signal to control a clamp driver and a drive circuit configured to generate a drive signal to control the power switch to transfer energy from an input of the power converter to the output of the power converter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: Power Integrations, Inc.
    Inventors: Arthur B. Odell, Rajko Duvnjak
  • Patent number: 11606043
    Abstract: A power device may have at least two capacitors in series with each other and in parallel with a DC power source. The power device may have at least a first converter that has at least a controller configured to balance a voltage of the at least two capacitors. The power device may have at least a second converter connected to the at least two capacitors. The second converter may have at least three input conductors, each connected to a terminal of the at least two capacitors. The second converter may have at least two output conductors. The second converter may have at least a switching circuit between the at least three input conductors and at least two output conductors. The second converter may have at least a controller configured to operate the switching circuit. The second converter may passively preserve the voltage balance between the at least two capacitors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 14, 2023
    Assignee: Solaredge Technologies Ltd.
    Inventors: Raanan Levi, Dor Shoshani, Amir Kipper
  • Patent number: 11601066
    Abstract: A conversion apparatus with a three-level switching circuit includes a DC conversion module, a three-level circuit, and a control unit. The three-level circuit includes a bridge arm assembly and a capacitor assembly. The capacitor assembly includes a first capacitor and a second capacitor connected to the first capacitor in series. The DC conversion module has a positive output end and a negative output end, and the positive output end and the negative output end are coupled to the bridge arm assembly. The control unit controls the switching of a second switch unit and a third switch unit to make the three-level circuit operate in a first state where the positive output end and the negative output end are connected to the first capacitor, and operate in a second state where the positive output end and the negative output end are connected to the second capacitor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2023
    Assignee: DELTA ELECTRONICS, INC.
    Inventors: Hung-Chieh Lin, Yi-Ping Hsieh, Jin-Zhong Huang, Hung-Yu Huang, Chih-Hsien Li
  • Patent number: 11594976
    Abstract: A power converter and a control method thereof are provided. The power converter includes a primary side switching circuit, a secondary side switching circuit, a transformer, and a control circuit. The primary side switching circuit includes a first set of switches. The secondary side switching circuit includes a second set of switches. The transformer is coupled between the primary side switching circuit and the secondary side switching circuit. The control circuit is configured to control power transfer between the primary side switching circuit and the secondary side switching circuit by controlling the first and second sets of switches. The control circuit is adapted to enable and disable the first and second sets of switches in an enabling duration and a disabling duration respectively and alternatively.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2023
    Assignee: DELTA ELECTRONICS, INC.
    Inventors: Misha Kumar, Yungtaek Jang
  • Patent number: 11588408
    Abstract: An embodiment provides a circuit including a transformer having a primary winding coupled to an input port configured to receive an input voltage and a secondary winding configured to provide an output voltage at an output port, controller circuitry configured to switch on and off a current through the primary winding so that energy is transferred to the secondary winding while switching and supply circuitry connected to the controller circuitry, wherein the supply circuitry is coupled to an auxiliary winding of the transformer and configured to provide a supply voltage for the controller circuitry.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2023
    Assignee: STMicroelectronics S.r.l.
    Inventors: Alberto Bianco, Francesco Ciappa, Giuseppe Scappatura
  • Patent number: 11575326
    Abstract: A DC-DC converter includes a first switching network that receives an input DC voltage and outputs a first AC voltage, a transformer, and a secondary side conversion circuit. The first switching network receives an input DC voltage. The transformer includes a middle-point primary tap such that when the input DC voltage is in a low voltage range, the middle-point tap of the transformer primary is connected to the input DC voltage causing current to flow through the first plurality of primary windings in parallel to current flowing through the second plurality of primary windings and when the input DC voltage is in a high voltage range, the middle-point tap is disconnected from the input DC voltage causing current to flow through the first plurality of primary windings in series with current flowing through the second plurality of primary windings.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2023
    Assignee: Lear Corporation
    Inventors: Rafael Jimenez Pino, Pablo Gaona Rosanes, Hector Sarnago Andia, Oscar Lucia Gil
  • Patent number: 11575305
    Abstract: An isolated gate driver has a first portion in a first voltage domain and a second portion in a second voltage domain. The first and second portions are coupled by an isolation communication channel. The isolated gate driver transmits across the isolation communication channel a serial word containing first drive strength information and simultaneously transmits gate information with the serial word across the isolation communication channel. The gate information indicates a state of a gate signal for a transistor coupled to the second portion of the isolated gate driver. A demodulator circuit demodulates a signal containing the gate information and the drive strength information transmitted across the isolation communication channel in the serial word. A gate signal output circuit coupled to the demodulator circuit supplies the gate signal based on the gate information with a drive strength of the gate signal being based on the drive strength information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 8, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2023
    Assignee: Skyworks Solutions, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael R. May, Fernando Naim Lavalle Aviles, Carlos Jesus Briseno-Vidrios, Patrick De Bakker, Gabor Marek, Charles Guo Lin, Peter Onody, Tamás Marozsák, András V. Horváth
  • Patent number: 11575331
    Abstract: For a serial multiplex inverter in which each phase includes cells connected serially, wherein each cell includes switching elements and is configured to output a level of +1 (ON), a level of zero (OFF), and a level of ?1 (ON) as output levels by operation of the switching elements, a control device includes a switching load distribution control section. This control section is configured to: store information about an ON-output duration of each of the cells and information about an OFF-output duration of each of the cells; for a shift pattern from ON to OFF in the cells, put OFF a gate signal for one of the cells whose ON-output duration is the longest of the cells; and for a shift pattern from OFF to ON in the cells, put ON a gate signal for one of the cells whose OFF-output duration is the longest of the cells.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2023
    Assignee: MEIDENSHA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Ryuichi Ogawa, Masashi Takiguchi
  • Patent number: 11569731
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides a control method for an AC-DC conversion circuit. The method includes: in an entire load range, acquiring circuit parameter information of the AC-DC conversion circuit; limiting an actual switching frequency or an actual switching period of the AC-DC conversion circuit within a preset working range according to the circuit parameter information. The AC-DC conversion circuit can meet requirements of Total Harmonic Distortion (THD), Power Factor (PF), efficiency and Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) and the like by adjusting the working information of the AC-DC conversion circuit through the preset working range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2023
    Assignee: Delta Electronics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kai Dong, Lin Wang, Shuailin Du, Junhao Ji, Hui Huang
  • Patent number: 11569732
    Abstract: A DC-link charging arrangement is described having a DC-link capacitor, rectifier means, and contactor means arranged between supply voltage ports and the rectifier means and having at least one contactor. Such a charging arrangement should enable charging of a DC-link capacitor in a simple way with low losses. To this end a charging capacitor is arranged bridging the at least one contactor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2023
    Assignee: Vacon Oy
    Inventors: Stefan Strandberg, Nicklas Södö
  • Patent number: 11569756
    Abstract: A flying capacitor (FC)-type 3-level power conversion device turns on or off first to fourth semiconductor switching elements based on comparison between a flying capacitor voltage and a half of higher-voltage side filter capacitor voltage, comparison between the higher-voltage side filter capacitor voltage and the flying capacitor voltage plus a lower-voltage side filter capacitor voltage, comparison between the flying capacitor voltage and the lower-voltage side filter capacitor voltage, and comparison between the lower-voltage side filter capacitor voltage or the higher-voltage side filter capacitor voltage and a filter capacitor voltage command value, so that an electric current flows along a path including a filter reactor L and charging a flying capacitor so as to charge a lower-voltage side filter capacitor or a higher-voltage side filter capacitor to predetermined values.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 9, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2023
    Assignee: MEIDENSHA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kazunobu Oi, Kenji Kobori
  • Patent number: 11563372
    Abstract: An electronic apparatus includes: an operator; and a power circuit configured to supply power to the operator, wherein the power circuit includes a first voltage converter configured to output a first voltage based on input power, and a power factor corrector (PFC) configured to output a second voltage by performing power factor correction for the first voltage, and supplies power based on the first voltage or the second voltage to the operator, wherein the power circuit stops an operation of the PFC, lowers the first voltage to have a level corresponding to the second voltage, and supplies power based on the lowered first voltage to the operator, based on power consumption of the operator lower than or equal to a predetermined value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 11, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2023
    Assignee: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Moonyoung Kim, Jeongil Kang, Shinwook Choi
  • Patent number: 11563367
    Abstract: Ina power conversion system having a fixed pulse pattern modulation unit 2 that is configured to refer to tables storing therein pulse patterns that determine respective command voltage levels corresponding to phase information for each modulation ratio and to generate a gate signal g on the basis of a command modulation ratio d and a control phase ? and driving a power converter 3 on the basis of the gate signal g, the fixed pulse pattern modulation unit 2 is further configured to, when performing a pulse pattern transition, search for a proper post-transition table reference position and make a command voltage level follow a command voltage level of a post-transition pulse pattern. With this, the power conversion system that can perform the pulse pattern transition without current impulse and that can also be applied to a multi-level power converter having four levels or more can be provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2023
    Assignee: MEIDENSHA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Ryuichi Ogawa, Masashi Takiguchi
  • Patent number: 11563385
    Abstract: This disclosure proposes a topology that integrates a DC chopper into the Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC) cells of a power converter. The integrated DC chopper may include chopper resistors that may also be advantageously integrated into a heat sink for a power module including at least the power transistors of the MMC cell. Embodiments herein also describe a method for using an MMC cell's IGBTs and chopper resistors for providing a safe discharge of both cell capacitors and DC-link capacitors in different operating conditions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2023
    Assignee: VESTAS WIND SYSTEMS A/S
    Inventors: Ciprian Biris, Cem Özgür Gerçek, Lars Helle, Duy Duc Doan, Tune Pedersen
  • Patent number: 11557899
    Abstract: A method and associated apparatus for feeding electric power from a photovoltaic system via a grid connection point into an AC grid having a low short-circuit power is disclosed. The method includes connecting a DC voltage side of at least one first inverter of the photovoltaic system to a photovoltaic generator and an AC voltage side of the at least one first inverter to the grid connection point, wherein the at least one first inverter is operated as a current source, and connecting an AC voltage side of a second inverter of the photovoltaic system to the grid connection point, wherein the second inverter is operated as a voltage source based on measurement values of an AC voltage measured in the region of the photovoltaic system and a predefined characteristic curve.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2023
    Assignee: SMA Solar Technology AG
    Inventors: Daniel Premm, Vitali Sakschewski
  • Patent number: 11552554
    Abstract: Provided are electrical circuits and methods for power factor correction. An example method includes receiving, by converter, an input voltage at a fundamental frequency and generating an output voltage; generating, based on the output voltage, a first measurement signal; subtracting a first reference signal from the first measurement signal to obtain a first error signal; generating an adaptive current sense signal, generating a reference voltage based on the input voltage, subtracting the reference voltage from the current sense signal thus generating a second measurement signal to control the current measurement; subtracting the second measurement signal from the input voltage to obtain a difference signal, wherein the difference signal is largely minimized by removing overtones of the fundamental frequency; generating, based on the difference signal, a second error signal; using a sum of the second error signal as a first order correction to the first error signal to regulate the converter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2023
    Inventor: Robert S. Wrathall
  • Patent number: 11545822
    Abstract: A protection circuit, and related method, for an electronic device including a first power output interface and a second power output interface is disclosed. The protection circuit includes a first switch element, coupled between a first voltage source and the first power output interface. The detection circuit being operation to detect an output voltage value of the second power output interface to generate a detection result. The first switch element, according to the detection result, connects the first voltage source to the first power output interface to allow the first power output interface to output power to an external terminal, or disconnects the first voltage source from the first power output interface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2023
    Assignee: MEDIATEK INC.
    Inventors: Tsui-Chuan Chuang, Ming-Ruei Liu, Dien-Shen Chiang, Chien-Tai Kao
  • Patent number: 11537155
    Abstract: A low-dropout regulator having an output current branch being arranged between a supply line to provide a supply potential and an output node to provide a regulated output voltage. The output current branch includes an output driver to provide an output current at the output node. The output driver has a control connection to apply a control voltage to operate the output driver with a different conductivity in dependence on the control voltage. The LDO includes an input amplifier stage to provide the control voltage to the control connection of the output driver. The input amplifier stage is configured to provide the control voltage with a different slew rate in dependence on an increase or decrease of the output current.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2022
    Assignee: ams AG
    Inventors: Carlo Fiocchi, Valerio Pisati
  • Patent number: 11539283
    Abstract: A power converter is configured to measure an output current and to determine a multi-phase voltage reference as a function of the output current. Within the same switching period the voltage reference is determined, a modulation routine determines a modulation index for each phase of the output voltage. In some instances, one or more phases must start modulation during the switching period before the new modulation index is determined. The modulation routine stores the value of the modulation index generated from the prior switching period and uses the stored value when a new value is not yet ready. An offset value for the phase voltage which used a modulation index from the prior switching period is determined in order to compensate the phase voltages of the other phases and to maintain a desired line-to-line voltage output from the power converter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2022
    Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Jonathan D. Hoffman, Adam M. Shea