Patents Examined by David A Singh
  • Patent number: 9584044
    Abstract: In some embodiments of the disclosed inverter topologies, an inverter may include a full bridge LLC resonant converter, a first boost converter, and a second boost converter. In such embodiments, the first and second boost converters operate in an interleaved manner. In other disclosed embodiments, the inverter may include a half-bridge inverter circuit, a resonant circuit, a capacitor divider circuit, and a transformer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2017
    Assignee: SunPower Corporation
    Inventors: Yan Zhou, Haiyu Zhang
  • Patent number: 9577532
    Abstract: A switching regulator circuit can include multiple switching regulator stages coupled to an output. A first switching regulator stage may be operated at a different frequency than a second switching regulator stage. In some cases, one switching regulator stage is operated at a different duty cycle. The switching regulator circuit may also include multiple switching regulator stages that cancel ripple at an output node.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2017
    Assignee: Gazelle Semiconductor, Inc.
    Inventors: David Christian Gerard Tournatory, Nicolas Stephane Monier
  • Patent number: 9564818
    Abstract: A DC/DC converter includes: a transformer; a main MOS transistor connected in series between a primary side inductance of the transformer and a ground potential; a synchronous rectification MOS transistor connected in series between a secondary side inductance of the transformer and the ground potential; a refluxing MOS transistor connected between a secondary side output of the transformer and the ground potential; and a controller. If an operation is stopped, the controller stops the main MOS transistor and stops the synchronous rectification MOS transistor and the refluxing MOS transistor after a lapse of a predetermined period of time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2017
    Assignee: ROHM CO., LTD
    Inventor: Yuichi Shinozaki
  • Patent number: 9564822
    Abstract: A DC power supply device including a DC/DC converter having FETs each driven by a drive transformer. A voltage from a single drive power supply disposed in common for the FETs is divided into positive and negative biases to be applied to the FETs, and an operational state of the FETs is detected based on voltage signals. A sequence circuit turns on an input from a three-phase AC power supply by driving a relay circuit at a time point when it is confirmed that the FETs have normally started stable ON/OFF operation, and drives a power factor improvement circuit, which converts AC voltage from the three-phase AC power supply into a DC voltage by simultaneously performing full-wave rectification and power factor improvement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 11, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2017
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventor: Yasuji Suzuki
  • Patent number: 9559599
    Abstract: An electronic apparatus includes a system portion configured to operate with a received voltage, and a power supply including a pulse width modulation (PWM) generator to generate a PWM signal, a converter to transfer voltage from a primary side to a secondary side in accordance with an output voltage of the PWM generator, and an output portion to supply voltage at the secondary side as standby voltage to the system portion, the PWM generator receives feedback on the standby voltage at the secondary side of the converter, the PWM signal is turned on/off in accordance with levels of the standby voltage at the secondary side, and voltage being supplied to components, except, when the PWM signal is turned off, voltage at the secondary side is only supplied to a component that monitors the feedback of the standby voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2017
    Assignee: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Jin-hyung Lee, Gil-yong Chang
  • Patent number: 9548648
    Abstract: A power converter includes at least a first phase including a high-side MOSFET transistor (HSA) and a low-side (LS) MOSFET transistor (LSA) driving a first output inductor. The first phase further includes an active gate drive assist circuit including first MOSFET switch (first switch) and second MOSFET switch (second switch) positioned in series between a source of HSA and a drain of LSA. A capacitor (CS) is between the source of HSA and drain of LSA. A bootstrap capacitor (CA) having a reference terminal is connected to a node between the first switch and the second switch.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2017
    Assignee: TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED
    Inventors: Michael G. Amaro, Joseph Maurice Khayat, Pradeep S. Shenoy
  • Patent number: 9543856
    Abstract: A power conversion apparatus has a structure in which the negative terminal of an insulated power supply is connected to one of connection nodes of a negative side bus with U-phase, V-phase and W-phase lower-arm switching elements except the end-side ones. That is the negative terminal of the insulated power supply is connected to the connection node between the negative side bus and the V-phase lower arm switching element to enable suppressing variations of input voltages supplied from the insulated power supply to respective drive circuits for driving the lower-arm switching elements by using low pass filters having smaller filtering capacity and smaller size.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 16, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2017
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventor: Tomotaka Suzuki
  • Patent number: 9509221
    Abstract: In a switching mode power converter coupled between first and second terminal pairs, a first circuit path includes a first inductance and a first switch. A tapped transformer has a first winding coupled across the first inductance and a tapped second winding with a tapped winding portion. A second circuit path includes a capacitance coupled to a second inductance, and the second circuit path is coupled to the first inductance through the tapped winding portion in a third circuit path and through the second winding in a fourth circuit path. During their respective conduction periods, the first switch couples the first inductance across the first terminal pair, a second switch completes a circuit between the second terminal pair and the second circuit path or the third circuit path, and a third switch completes a circuit that includes another of the second circuit path and the fourth circuit path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2016
    Assignee: Solantro Semiconductor Corp.
    Inventors: Gabriel Scarlatescu, Raymond Kenneth Orr, Edward Keyes
  • Patent number: 9501080
    Abstract: A multiple output comparator compares a first input signal and a second input signal. An output mirror circuit receives the comparison and sets an output signal at a first output terminal of the multiple output comparator to a digital state indicating that the magnitude of the is greater than or lesser than the second signal. An offset generator creates an offset signal for adjusting a threshold signal level at the output mirror circuit such that the difference of the and the second signal is combined with the offset signal. The output mirror circuit transfers provides a digital state to another output terminal indicating that the is greater than or lesser than the second signal as adjusted by the adjustment signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2016
    Assignee: Dialog Semiconductor (UK) Limited
    Inventor: Mark Childs
  • Patent number: 9496792
    Abstract: A controller used in a multi-phase switching converter, including: a bias current generator that generates a plurality of bias current signals; a temperature balance modulating circuit that generates a plurality of on time signals based on the plurality of the bias current signals; and a logic circuit that generates a plurality of control signals based on the plurality of on time signals. The plurality of the control signals is used to control a plurality of switching circuits of the multi-phase switching converter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2016
    Assignee: CHENGDU MONOLITHIC POWER SYSTEMS CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Qian Ouyang
  • Patent number: 9490704
    Abstract: Control methods for resonant converters offer improved performance in resonant converters that operate with a wide input-voltage range or a wide output-voltage range (or both) by substantially reducing the switching-frequency range. Reduction in the switching frequency range is achieved by controlling the output voltage with a combination of variable-frequency control and time-delay control. Variable-frequency control may be used to control the primary switches of an isolated resonant converter, while delay-time control may be used to control secondary-side rectifier switches provided in place of diode rectifiers. The secondary-side control may be implemented by sensing the secondary current or the primary current (or both) and by delaying the turning-off of the corresponding secondary switch with respect to the zero crossings in the secondary current or the primary current.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2016
    Assignee: DELTA ELECTRONICS, INC.
    Inventors: Yungtaek Jang, Milan M. Jovanović
  • Patent number: 9491819
    Abstract: In one aspect, a switching power converter is described that includes a transformer, a switch, and a controller that generates a control signal to turn on and turn off the switch. For each alternating current (AC) half-cycle of an input voltage, the controller determines a minimum value of a signal representing an on-time of the power converter, compares the determined minimum value with a threshold value that is used to determine whether the switching power converter operates in a constant on-time mode or in a constant power mode, and adjusts the threshold value based on a result of the comparison. The controller further generates the control signal to operate the switching power converter in a constant power mode during a first time period of the AC half-cycle, the first time period representing a duration where the threshold value is larger than an instantaneous value of the first signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2016
    Assignee: Dialog Semiconductor Inc.
    Inventors: Juyoung Yoon, Xiaolin Gao, Fuqiang Shi
  • Patent number: 9479080
    Abstract: In some aspects, a direct current power source, formed of a series connection circuit of single power sources, which has three mutually different voltage levels including zero can be provided with first, second, third, and fourth arm pairs, each configured by connecting two arms formed of semiconductor switches in series, an alternating current switch configured by combining semiconductor switches. As such, a plurality of voltage levels can be to be selected from and output by an on and off control of these switch elements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2016
    Assignee: FUJI ELECTRIC CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Makoto Yatsu
  • Patent number: 9473021
    Abstract: A parallel-connected power conversion system of a multi-phase generator configured to provide a power factor correction for a multi-phase generator. The parallel-connected power conversion system includes a parallel-connected power conversion apparatus and a control unit. The parallel-connected power conversion apparatus has a plurality of power conversion units connected in parallel to each other. The parallel-connected power conversion apparatus receives a plurality of generator currents and a plurality of generator voltages generated from the multi-phase generator, and outputs a DC voltage. The control unit generates a plurality of control signals to correspondingly control the power conversion units so that the generator currents linearly follow the generator voltages, therefore the power factor correction of the multi-phase generator is achieved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2016
    Assignee: DELTA ELECTRONICS, INC.
    Inventors: Chih-Hung Hsiao, Jo-Fang Wei, Li-Wei Hsiao
  • Patent number: 9461554
    Abstract: A converter comprises a non-isolated stage coupled to an input dc power source, wherein the non-isolated stage is configured to operate at a buck converter mode in response to a first input voltage and operate at a boost converter mode in response to a second input voltage, a resonant stage coupled between the non-isolated stage and a load, wherein the resonant stage is configured to operate at a resonant mode and a capacitor coupled between the non-isolated stage and the resonant stage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2016
    Assignee: Futurewei Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Dianbo Fu, Liming Ye, Heping Dai, Daoshen Chen
  • Patent number: 9455622
    Abstract: An inverter and an over current protection method thereof are provided. The inverter includes an inverting circuit, a filtering capacitor and an over current protection circuit. The inverting circuit is configured to convert a DC input voltage into an AC output voltage and provide the AC output voltage to a load. The filtering capacitor is coupled to the inverting circuit and the load in parallel. The over current protection circuit is coupled to the inverting circuit and the filtering capacitor and configured to provide an over current protection mechanism. The over current protection circuit detects an AC current on the filtering capacitor and determines whether to enable the over current protection mechanism according to the AC current in order to restrain the power conversion operation of the inverting circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 4, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 27, 2016
    Assignees: FSP-Powerland Technology Inc., FSP TECHNOLOGY INC.
    Inventors: Chuan-Yun Wang, Ming Xu, Jian-Guo Mu
  • Patent number: 9450496
    Abstract: A multi-stage power converter includes a pre-regulator circuit configured to provide a regulated output voltage, at least one DC/DC converter, and a control circuit coupled to the pre-regulator circuit and the DC/DC converter. The DC/DC converter is configured to provide an output voltage and an output current to a load. The DC/DC converter includes an input, an output, and at least one power switch. The input of the DC/DC converter is coupled to the pre-regulator circuit. The control circuit is configured to regulate the output voltage of the DC/DC converter and vary the regulated output voltage of the pre-regulator circuit as a function of the output current of the DC/DC converter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2016
    Assignee: ASTEC INTERNATIONAL LIMITED
    Inventors: James Sigamani, Antonio Remetio Soleño
  • Patent number: 9438121
    Abstract: A power converter according to examples reduces standby power consumption. The power converter includes a rectifier configured to rectify AC power into DC power, a transformer configured to output power by converting a voltage of DC power rectified by the rectifier, a PWM control module configured to control an output power by switching a power switching device connected to the transformer, a first external switch configured to provide a disable signal, a first capacitor that is connected in parallel to one side of the first external switch, a second external switch configured to provide an enable signal, and a second capacitor that is connected in parallel to one side of the second external switch.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2016
    Assignee: Magnachip Semiconductor, Ltd.
    Inventors: Zhi Yuan Cui, Young Gi Ryu, James Jung, Hae Wook Kim, Julie Jang
  • Patent number: 9438125
    Abstract: A power conversion apparatus includes a primary side circuit and a secondary side circuit magnetically coupled to the primary side circuit via a transformer, and converts power between a primary side port of the primary side circuit and a secondary side port of the secondary side circuit, using switching of each of the primary side circuit and the secondary side circuit. The power conversion apparatus further includes a control unit that controls a frequency of the switching and a phase difference between the switching of the primary side circuit and the switching of the secondary side circuit such that power conversion efficiency between the primary side port and the secondary side port is increased.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2016
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Jun Muto
  • Patent number: 9431906
    Abstract: A converter circuit has an error amplifier to provide an error signal; a proportional amplifier to provide a gain signal according the error signal and an output voltage of the converter circuit; a first comparator, generating a pulse signal according to the gain signal and a comparison signal; and a timer, generating a timing signal according to the pulse signal to indicate the on time and the off time of the converter circuit; and wherein either the gain signal or the comparison signal comprises a ramp component, and wherein the on time of the converter circuit is constant.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2016
    Assignee: Chengdu Monolithic Power Systems Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Bo Yang, Xiaoyu Xi