Patents by Inventor Claudio Adragna

Claudio Adragna has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20180048239
    Abstract: The present disclosure is directed to a high power factor quasi resonant converter. The converter converts an AC power line input to a DC output to power a load, generally a string of LEDs. The power input is fed into a transformer being controlled by a power switch. The power switch is driven by a controller having a shaping circuit. The shaping circuit uses a current generator, switched resistor and capacitor to produce a sinusoidal reference voltage signal. The controller drives the power switch based on the voltage reference signal, resulting in a sinusoidal input current in a primary winding of the transformer, resulting in high power factor and low total harmonic distortion for the converter.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 2, 2017
    Publication date: February 15, 2018
    Inventors: Claudio Adragna, Giovanni Gritti
  • Publication number: 20180004240
    Abstract: A control device for controlling a switching converter includes a switch controller that generates a control signal with a switching period for controlling switching of a switch of the switching converter and setting a first interval in which a current flows in the switch, a second interval in which energy is transferred onto a storage element of the switching converter, and a third, wait, interval, at the end of the second interval. The duration of the first interval is determined based on a control voltage indicating the output voltage. A pre-distortion stage receives the control voltage and generates a pre-distorted control voltage as a function of the control voltage and a relationship between one of the first and third time intervals and the switching period, wherein the switch controller is configured to control a duration of the first interval based on the pre-distorted control voltage.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 19, 2016
    Publication date: January 4, 2018
    Inventors: Giovanni Gritti, Claudio Adragna
  • Publication number: 20180006568
    Abstract: A PWM controlled multi-phase resonant voltage converter may include a plurality of primary windings powered through respective half-bridges, and as many secondary windings connected to an output terminal of the converter and magnetically coupled to the respective primary windings. The primary or secondary windings may be connected such that a real or virtual neutral point is floating.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2017
    Publication date: January 4, 2018
    Inventors: Claudio Adragna, Giuseppe Gattavari, Paolo Mattavelli, Enrico Orietti, Giorgio Spiazzi
  • Publication number: 20170353117
    Abstract: An integrated circuit includes an output terminal a first input terminal is configured to receive a signal proportional to a voltage between first and second terminals of the primary winding, and a second input terminal is configured to receive a signal proportional to a current flowing through the primary winding. A quasi-resonant (QR) circuit has a first input coupled to the first terminal, and a second input coupled to an output of an oscillator circuit. A selector circuit has a first input coupled to the output of the oscillator circuit, a second input coupled to an output of the QR circuit, and a select input. An output control circuit includes a first input coupled to the second input terminal, a second input coupled to an output of the selector circuit, and an output coupled to a control terminal of the switching transistor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 31, 2017
    Publication date: December 7, 2017
    Inventors: Giovanni Lombardo, Claudio Adragna, Salvatore Tumminaro
  • Publication number: 20170317597
    Abstract: A circuit includes a timer circuit configured to generate a first control signal defining a first time period and a second control signal defining a second time period. A controller is configured to control a high-side and a low-side transistor of a half-bridge circuit in response to the first and second control signals only during a first switching cycle of the half-bridge circuit. The half-bridge circuit includes a bootstrap capacitor coupled to a node between the high-side and low-side transistors. The controller turns on the low-side transistor for the first time period during the first switching cycle and configured turns off the low-side and the high-side transistors for the second time period during the first switching cycle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 18, 2017
    Publication date: November 2, 2017
    Inventors: Claudio Adragna, Aldo Vittorio Novelli, Christian Leone Santoro
  • Patent number: 9800148
    Abstract: Described herein is a module for controlling a switching converter, which includes at least one inductor element and one switch element and generates an output electric quantity starting from an input electric quantity. The control module generates a command signal for controlling the switching of the switch element and includes an estimator stage, which generates an estimation signal proportional to the input electric quantity, on the basis of the command signal and of an input signal indicating a time interval in which the inductor element is demagnetized. The control module generates the command signal on the basis of the estimation signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 24, 2017
    Assignee: STMICROELECTRONICS S.R.L.
    Inventors: Giovanni Gritti, Claudio Adragna
  • Patent number: 9780678
    Abstract: A PWM controlled multi-phase resonant voltage converter may include a plurality of primary windings powered through respective half-bridges, and as many secondary windings connected to an output terminal of the converter and magnetically coupled to the respective primary windings. The primary or secondary windings may be connected such that a real or virtual neutral point is floating.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2017
    Assignee: STMicroelectronics S.r.l.
    Inventors: Claudio Adragna, Giuseppe Gattavari, Paolo Mattavelli, Enrico Orietti, Giorgio Spiazzi
  • Patent number: 9780673
    Abstract: A control device for controlling a switching power supply adapted to convert an input voltage into an output voltage according to a switching rate of a switching element. The control device includes first control means for switching the switching element in a first working mode at a constant frequency and second control means for switching the switching element in a second working mode at a variable frequency, under a maximum frequency, in response to the detection of a predefined operative condition of the switching power supply. The control device further includes means for selecting the first working mode or the second working mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2017
    Assignee: STMicroelectronics S.r.l.
    Inventors: Giovanni Lombardo, Claudio Adragna, Salvatore Tumminaro
  • Patent number: 9735686
    Abstract: A control device controls a switching circuit for a converter. The switching circuit comprises a half-bridge having a high-side transistor and a low-side transistor. The control device comprises a controller configured to control turning on and turning off said two transistors, so that a square-wave voltage is applied to the transformer primary. The controller is configured to start switching the half-bridge by turning on the low-side transistor. The control device comprises a first timer configure to initially turn on the low-side transistor for a duration given by a first time period useful for pre-charging a bootstrap capacitor couplable to the middle point of the half-bridge, and a second timer configured to keep the low-side transistor and the high-side transistor turned off for a second time period immediately following the first time period and having a longer duration than the first time period.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2017
    Assignee: STMicroelectronics S.r.l.
    Inventors: Claudio Adragna, Aldo Vittorio Novelli, Christian Leone Santoro
  • Patent number: 9705412
    Abstract: The present disclosure is directed to a switching power converter having a regulated output voltage or output current. The power converter uses a control unit having a signal conditioning circuit to produce a control voltage signal, which is used to drive a power stage of the converter. The signal conditioning circuit includes a comparator that compares a measured electrical quantity to a reference value representative of a desired regulated output quantity, and produces a digital detection signal based on the comparison. A control actuator uses the digital detection signal to produce a correction signal, which is received by an averaging circuit. The averaging circuit then produces the control voltage signal based on an average of the correction signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 11, 2017
    Assignee: STMICROELECTRONICS S.R.L.
    Inventor: Claudio Adragna
  • Patent number: 9698688
    Abstract: An effective method enhances energy saving at low load in a resonant converter with a hysteretic control scheme for implementing burst-mode at light load. The method causes a current controlled oscillator of the converter to stop oscillating when a feedback control current of the output voltage of the converter reaches a first threshold value, and introduces a nonlinearity in the functional relation between the frequency of oscillation and said feedback control current or in a derivative of the functional relation, while the control current is between a lower, second threshold value and the first threshold value, such that the frequency of oscillation remains equal or smaller than the frequency of oscillation when the control current is equal to the second threshold value. Several circuital implementations are illustrated, all of simple realization without requiring any costly microcontroller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 4, 2017
    Assignee: STMICROELECTRONICS S.R.L.
    Inventors: Claudio Adragna, Claudio Spini, Aldo Vittorio Novelli, Fabrizio Bognanni
  • Publication number: 20170179845
    Abstract: A control device controls a switching converter having an input alternating supply voltage and a regulated direct voltage at the output terminal. The converter comprises a switch and the control device is adapted to control the on time period and the off time period of said switch for each cycle. The control device has a first input signal representative of the current flowing through at least one element of the converter and comprises a zero crossing detector adapted to detect at least one pair of first and second zero crossings of said first signal for each switching cycle, said second zero crossing immediately following the first zero crossing and occurring in opposite direction with respect to the first zero crossing. The control device comprises a synchronizer adapted to synchronize the start of the on period with each second zero crossing of said first signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 7, 2017
    Publication date: June 22, 2017
    Inventor: Claudio Adragna
  • Publication number: 20170179833
    Abstract: A power control module for an electronic converter is disclosed. The electronic converter includes a power stage comprising two input terminals for receiving a first power signal and two output terminals for providing a second power signal. The electronic converter includes, moreover, a control circuit configured to control operation of the power stage as a function of a feedback control signal. In particular, the power control module includes a pre-elaboration module configured to generate a reference signal as a function of the feedback control signal and a first signal being representative of a voltage applied to the two input terminals. An error amplifier is configured to generate a modified control signal as a function the reference signal and a second signal being representative of a current flowing through the two input terminals.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 27, 2016
    Publication date: June 22, 2017
    Inventor: Claudio Adragna
  • Publication number: 20170117814
    Abstract: The present disclosure is directed to a high power factor quasi resonant converter. The converter converts an AC power line input to a DC output to power a load, generally a string of LEDs. The power input is fed into a transformer being controlled by a power switch. The power switch is driven by a controller having a shaping circuit. The shaping circuit uses a current generator, switched resistor and capacitor to produce a sinusoidal reference voltage signal. The controller drives the power switch based on the voltage reference signal, resulting in a sinusoidal input current in a primary winding of the transformer, resulting in high power factor and low total harmonic distortion for the converter.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 4, 2016
    Publication date: April 27, 2017
    Inventors: Claudio Adragna, Giovanni Gritti
  • Publication number: 20170063242
    Abstract: The present disclosure is directed to a primary-controlled high power factor quasi resonant converter. The converter converts an AC power line input to a DC output to power a load, generally a string of LEDs, and may be compatible with phase-cut dimmers. The power input is fed into a transformer being controlled by a power switch. The power switch is driven by a controller having a shaping circuit. The shaping circuit uses a current generator, switched resistor and capacitor to produce a reference voltage signal. The controller drives the power switch based on the voltage reference signal, resulting in a sinusoidal input current in a primary winding of the transformer, resulting in high power factor and low total harmonic distortion for the converter.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 9, 2016
    Publication date: March 2, 2017
    Inventors: Giovanni Gritti, Claudio Adragna
  • Patent number: 9520796
    Abstract: The present disclosure is directed to a high power factor quasi resonant converter. The converter converts an AC power line input to a DC output to power a load, generally a string of LEDs. The power input is fed into a transformer being controlled by a power switch. The power switch is driven by a controller having a shaping circuit. The shaping circuit uses a current generator, switched resistor and capacitor to produce a sinusoidal reference voltage signal. The controller drives the power switch based on the voltage reference signal, resulting in a sinusoidal input current in a primary winding of the transformer, resulting in high power factor and low total harmonic distortion for the converter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2016
    Assignee: STMICROELECTRONICS S.R.L.
    Inventors: Claudio Adragna, Giovanni Gritti
  • Patent number: 9461558
    Abstract: A control device of a switching converter controls the closing and opening of a switch of the converter that regulates the operation of an inductor. The control device includes a ramp voltage generator, a switch control circuit configured to close the switch based on a comparison of the ramp voltage with a first signal and a generator control circuit configured to control the ramp voltage generator based on a value of a second signal representative of a current flowing through the inductor of the converter, in comparison with the value of a third signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2016
    Assignee: STMicroelectronics S.r.l.
    Inventors: Alberto Bianco, Claudio Adragna
  • Patent number: 9455636
    Abstract: The present disclosure is directed to a primary-controlled high power factor quasi resonant converter. The converter converts an AC power line input to a DC output to power a load, generally a string of LEDs, and may be compatible with phase-cut dimmers. The power input is fed into a transformer being controlled by a power switch. The power switch is driven by a controller having a shaping circuit. The shaping circuit uses a current generator, switched resistor and capacitor to produce a reference voltage signal. The controller drives the power switch based on the voltage reference signal, resulting in a sinusoidal input current in a primary winding of the transformer, resulting in high power factor and low total harmonic distortion for the converter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 27, 2016
    Assignee: STMICROELECTRONICS S.R.L.
    Inventors: Giovanni Gritti, Claudio Adragna
  • Publication number: 20160261199
    Abstract: The present disclosure is directed to a high power factor quasi resonant converter. The converter converts an AC power line input to a DC output to power a load, generally a string of LEDs. The power input is fed into a transformer being controlled by a power switch. The power switch is driven by a controller having a shaping circuit. The shaping circuit uses a current generator, switched resistor and capacitor to produce a sinusoidal reference voltage signal. The controller drives the power switch based on the voltage reference signal, resulting in a sinusoidal input current in a primary winding of the transformer, resulting in high power factor and low total harmonic distortion for the converter.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 6, 2015
    Publication date: September 8, 2016
    Inventors: Claudio Adragna, Giovanni Gritti
  • Publication number: 20160252918
    Abstract: The present disclosure is directed to a switching power converter having a regulated output voltage or output current. The power converter uses a control unit having a signal conditioning circuit to produce a control voltage signal, which is used to drive a power stage of the converter. The signal conditioning circuit includes a comparator that compares a measured electrical quantity to a reference value representative of a desired regulated output quantity, and produces a digital detection signal based on the comparison. A control actuator uses the digital detection signal to produce a correction signal, which is received by an averaging circuit. The averaging circuit then produces the control voltage signal based on an average of the correction signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 26, 2015
    Publication date: September 1, 2016
    Inventor: Claudio Adragna