Patents by Inventor Patrick L. Chapman

Patrick L. Chapman 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: 20120087159
    Abstract: An apparatus and method for controlling the delivery of a pre-determined amount of power from a DC source to an AC grid includes an inverter and an inverter controller. The inverter includes an input converter, an energy storage capacitor, and an output converter. The inverter controller includes an input converter controller and an output converter controller. The input converter controller includes feedforward controller configured to perform a calculation to determine a value for the duty cycle for the input converter such that: (1) the input converter delivers the pre-determined amount of power and (2) the magnitude of a ripple signal reflected into the input source is attenuated toward zero. The input converter controller may also include a quadrature corrector configured to determine the effectiveness of the calculation in attenuating the ripple and to adaptively alter the calculation to improve the effectiveness.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 11, 2010
    Publication date: April 12, 2012
    Applicant: SOLARBRIDGE TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: Patrick L. Chapman, Trishan Esram, Eric Martina, Brian Kuhn
  • Patent number: 8120933
    Abstract: A power converter includes a reverse-recovery avoidance scheme. The power converter may include deliver current from a direct current (DC) power source to an alternating current (AC) load. A first switch and second switch of the power converter may be operated to supply the AC load with positive current respective to the AC load from the DC power source. A third and fourth switch of the power converter may be operated to supply the AC load with negative current respective to the AC load from the DC power source. A first diode may be electrically coupled in series with the second switch and second diode may be electrically coupled in parallel with the first diode and the second switch. The second diode may conduct the positive current when the first switch is off and the second switch is on. A third diode may be electrically coupled in series with the fourth switch and a fourth diode may be electrically coupled in parallel with the third diode and the fourth switch.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2012
    Assignee: SolarBridge Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Patrick L. Chapman, Trishan Esram
  • Publication number: 20120008348
    Abstract: A power inverter may include a transformer serving as an isolation barrier. The power inverter may include a first controller on one side of the isolation barrier. The first controller may encode the frequency of an input voltage of the transformer with one or more operating conditions of a direct current power supply electrically coupled to the inverter. As second controller on the other side of the isolation barrier may determine a frequency associated with an output voltage of the transformer. The second controller may decode the frequency associated with the output voltage of the transformer to determine the encoded operating conditions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 8, 2010
    Publication date: January 12, 2012
    Applicant: SolarBridge Technologies
    Inventor: Patrick L. Chapman
  • Publication number: 20110222326
    Abstract: Power conversion methods, systems, articles of manufacture, and devices are provided. The power conversion may include converting between direct current and alternating current wherein switching losses associated with latent electrical charges are reduced. Current sensing may be low-side bus reference. Solid-state implementations, code implementations, and mixed implementations are provided.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 3, 2010
    Publication date: September 15, 2011
    Applicant: SolarBridge Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Alexander Gray, Patrick L. Chapman
  • Publication number: 20110211379
    Abstract: A power converter includes a reverse-recovery avoidance scheme. The power converter may include deliver current from a direct current (DC) power source to an alternating current (AC) load. A first switch and second switch of the power converter may be operated to supply the AC load with positive current respective to the AC load from the DC power source. A third and fourth switch of the power converter may be operated to supply the AC load with negative current respective to the AC load from the DC power source. A first diode may be electrically coupled in series with the second switch and second diode may be electrically coupled in parallel with the first diode and the second switch. The second diode may conduct the positive current when the first switch is off and the second switch is on. A third diode may be electrically coupled in series with the fourth switch and a fourth diode may be electrically coupled in parallel with the third diode and the fourth switch.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 1, 2010
    Publication date: September 1, 2011
    Applicant: SolarBridge Technologies
    Inventors: Patrick L. Chapman, Trishan Esram
  • Publication number: 20110062935
    Abstract: An energy recovery circuit receives and stores energy associated with switching transitions in a power converter having a first switch and a second switch configured to be operated to selectively apply a voltage source to an output load. The energy recovery circuit includes an inductive element, a diode, and a capacitive element. The inductive element receives at least a portion of electrical current flowing through one of the first switch and the second switch. The at least a portion of the electrical current flows through the diode to charge the capacitive element with a voltage. The energy recovery circuit includes a recovery power converter to transfer the voltage from the capacitor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 16, 2009
    Publication date: March 17, 2011
    Applicant: SolarBridge Technologies
    Inventors: Alexander Gray, Patrick L. Chapman
  • Publication number: 20110026281
    Abstract: An apparatus and method for controlling the delivery of power from a DC source to an AC grid includes an inverter configured to deliver power from the unipolar input source to the AC grid and an inverter controller. The inverter includes an input converter, an active filter, and an output converter. The inverter controller includes an input converter controller, an active filter controller and an output converter controller. The input converter controller is configured to control a current delivered by the input converter to a galvanically isolated unipolar bus of the inverter. The output converter is configured to control the output converter to deliver power to the AC grid. Additionally, the active filter controller is configured to control the active filter to supply substantially all the power that is deliver by the output controller to the AC grid at a grid frequency.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 21, 2009
    Publication date: February 3, 2011
    Inventors: Patrick L. Chapman, Brian T. Kuhn, Robert S. Balog, Jonathan W. Kimball, Philip T. Krein, Alexander Gray, Trishan Esram
  • Publication number: 20110026282
    Abstract: An inverter for converting an input direct current (DC) waveform from a DC source to an output alternating current (AC) waveform for delivery to an AC grid includes an input converter, an output converter, and an active filter, each of which is electrically coupled to a bus. The bus may be a DC bus or an AC bus. The input converter is configured to convert the input DC waveform to a DC or AC bus waveform. The output converter is configured to convert the bus waveform to the output AC waveform at a grid frequency. The active filter is configured to reduce a double-frequency ripple power of the bus waveform by supplying power to and absorbing power from the power bus.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 21, 2009
    Publication date: February 3, 2011
    Inventors: Patrick L. Chapman, Brian T. Kuhn, Robert S. Balog, Jonathan W. Kimball, Philip T. Krein, Alexander Gray
  • Patent number: 7227277
    Abstract: Apparatuses and methods for converting a plurality of dc input voltages from a plurality of voltage sources to at least one dc output voltage. An apparatus embodiment includes a plurality of voltage inputs. A respective current-conducting-bidirectional-voltage-blocking switch is in an electrical path from each of the voltage inputs. A magnetically inductive device is in an electrical path from each of the current-conducting-bidirectional-voltage-blocking switches. A voltage output is in an electrical path from the magnetically inductive device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2003
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2007
    Assignee: The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
    Inventors: Patrick L. Chapman, Bryan G. Dobbs