Patents Examined by Jeffrey Sterrett
  • Patent number: 10291133
    Abstract: A switching power supply device having a synchronous rectifier IC on a secondary side, responds to an anomaly on a primary side based on detecting an occurrence of the anomaly on the secondary side. When a secondary side synchronous rectifier IC detects an anomaly, a current is output from the anomaly-time current output terminal of the secondary side synchronous rectifier IC. By the output current flowing through a resistance, a voltage at an output voltage detection point is raised to increase a current through the cathode of a shunt regulator. In so doing, a current flowing through a photodiode of a photocoupler also increases, and the FB terminal voltage of a switching control IC connected to a primary side phototransistor decreases. The primary side switching control IC operates to minimize output power, reduces a secondary side output voltage, or stops an operation of the switching power supply device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 11, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2019
    Assignee: FUJI ELECTRIC CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Jun Yabuzaki
  • Patent number: 10224716
    Abstract: Embodiments herein provide an ACsDC converter for generating an ACsDC signal in which AC or DC source can be used to generate the ACsDC signal. The structure of the ACsDC converter consists of three stages, viz., input, isolation, and output. At the input stage, a DC voltage is converted to two AC voltages using power electronic converters. The isolation stage consists of transformers for isolating load and source terminals. The secondary voltages of the isolation transformers are used for obtaining the AC and DC components of the ACsDC signal. At the output stage, the AC component of the output voltage is obtained by using an AC-DC converter and a DC-AC converter. The magnitude, phase, and frequency of the AC component can be controlled. The magnitude of the DC component is controlled using a modulation technique. The AC and the DC component can be combined to obtain the ACsDC signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2019
    Assignee: INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY BOMBAY
    Inventors: Venkat Nag Someswar Rao Jakka, Anshuman Shukla, Shrikrishna Vyankatesh Kulkarni
  • Patent number: 10177678
    Abstract: Arrangements (1) for buffering energy comprise buffer capacitor circuits (10) with one or more buffer capacitors (11), first circuits (20) for guiding charging currents for charging the buffer capacitor circuits (10), and second circuits (30) with current source circuits (31-34) for defining amplitudes of de-charging currents for de-charging the buffer capacitor circuits (10), to better control the de-charging of the buffer capacitor circuits (10). The second circuits (30) may further comprise trigger circuits (51-53) for bringing the current source circuits (31-34) into activated modes, and latch circuits (61-63) for latching the current source circuits (31-34). The arrangements (1) may further comprise smoothing capacitor circuits (40) with one or more smoothing capacitors (41). The buffer capacitor circuits (10) may be coupled serially to the first circuits (20), and the first and second circuits (20, 30) may be coupled in parallel to each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 8, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2019
    Assignee: PHILIPS LIGHTING HOLDING B.V.
    Inventors: Guy Louis Paul De Bondt, Georg Sauerländer, Christian Hattrup
  • Patent number: 10126764
    Abstract: An energy storage (ES) circuit including a plurality of terminals configured to connect to a pulse load having an input voltage and drawing a low current during a first interval and a high current during a second interval, and connect to a power supply having a source voltage and delivering a source current, an energy storage capacitor connected to the plurality of terminals, and a bidirectional direct current (DC) to DC converter configured to recharge, during at least a portion of the first interval, the energy storage capacitor using a plurality of charge drawn from the source current, and reduce a drop in the input voltage during the second interval by delivering a difference between the source current and the high current to the pulse load using the plurality of charge stored in the energy storage capacitor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 16, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2018
    Inventors: Petrus Kamp, Lambertus Franciscus Maria De Koning
  • Patent number: 10122367
    Abstract: Disclosed examples include isolated phase shifted dual active bridge DC to DC converters with a first bridge circuit operative according to a primary side clock signal to provide a primary voltage signal to a transformer primary winding, a second bridge circuit operative according to a secondary side clock signal to convert a secondary voltage signal from a transformer secondary winding to provide an output voltage signal, and a secondary side control circuit that alternately operates in a first mode to regulate the output voltage signal by controlling a phase shift angle between switching transitions of secondary side switching control signals and switching transitions of the secondary side clock signal, and a second mode to discontinue the secondary side switching control signals and synchronize the secondary side clock signal to transitions in the secondary voltage signal while the secondary side switching control signals are discontinued.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 6, 2018
    Assignee: TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED
    Inventors: Pierluigi Albertini, Maurizio Granato, Roberto Giampiero Massolini, Giovanni Frattini
  • Patent number: 10122284
    Abstract: System and method for regulating a power conversion system. A system controller for regulating a power conversion system includes a first controller terminal and a second controller terminal. The system controller is configured to receive at least an input signal at the first controller terminal, and generate a gate drive signal at the second controller terminal based on at least information associated with the input signal to turn on or off a transistor in order to affect a current associated with a secondary winding of the power conversion system. The system controller is further configured to, if the input signal is larger than a first threshold, generate the gate drive signal at a first logic level to turn off the transistor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 6, 2018
    Assignee: On-Bright Electronics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Lieyi Fang
  • Patent number: 10090680
    Abstract: Provided is an apparatus for delivering electrical power, in particular for delivering regeneratively produced electrical power, which has at least one converter and at least one filter for matching the delivery of power by the converter to a load impedance. Also provided is a method for operating the apparatus for delivering electrical power which allows improved monitoring of the functioning of the filters or mains filters and which uses means for determining at least one filter current in at least one filter, which means are designed in such a manner that said means make it possible to determine the at least one filter current during operation of the apparatus. Comparison means are provided and generate an error information signal using the desired value and actual value of the filter current and a predefinable error criterion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2018
    Assignee: Woodward Kempen GmbH
    Inventors: Dirk Volker Leiting, Jörg Kretschmann, Jan van Leyen, Stephan Engelhardt
  • Patent number: 10090768
    Abstract: System and method for regulating a power conversion system. A system controller for regulating a power conversion system includes a first controller terminal and a second controller terminal. The system controller is configured to receive at least an input signal at the first controller terminal, and generate a gate drive signal at the second controller terminal based on at least information associated with the input signal to turn on or off a transistor in order to affect a current associated with a secondary winding of the power conversion system. The system controller is further configured to, if the input signal is larger than a first threshold, generate the gate drive signal at a first logic level to turn off the transistor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2018
    Assignee: On-Bright Electronics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Lieyi Fang
  • Patent number: 10075122
    Abstract: The disclosed embodiment relates to a method of controlling a system including at least one inverter with six switches, which is linked to a battery, and supervised by a processor. The method implements a vector modulation, so that it is able to prevent the current linking the battery from passing through zero amperes by means of appropriate control logic. The disclosed embodiment also relates to a device for controlling an electronic component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 8, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2018
    Assignee: CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE
    Inventors: Khalil El Khamlichi Drissi, Abbas Dehghanikiadehi, Christophe Pasquier
  • Patent number: 10063153
    Abstract: System and method for regulating a power conversion system. A system controller for regulating a power conversion system includes a first controller terminal and a second controller terminal. The system controller is configured to receive at least an input signal at the first controller terminal, and generate a gate drive signal at the second controller terminal based on at least information associated with the input signal to turn on or off a transistor in order to affect a current associated with a secondary winding of the power conversion system. The system controller is further configured to, if the input signal is larger than a first threshold, generate the gate drive signal at a first logic level to turn off the transistor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2018
    Assignee: On-Bright Electronics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Lieyi Fang
  • Patent number: 10050519
    Abstract: An improved power distribution architecture includes a voltage regulator configured to operate with its output voltage approximately equal to its input voltage for most of the time. The regulator set point can be set to follow the input voltage within a limited range and set to a minimum or maximum set point outside the range. An improved ZVSBB controller adaptively extends the I-O phase of the converter while the input to output voltage ratio is close to one and responds to changes in input-output voltage differential within a short response time. The controller may respond asymmetrically to voltage changes with a steep response to voltage differentials in the boost range and a shallow response to voltage differentials in the buck range. An improved ZVSBB converter may achieve a peak converter efficiency greater than 99% owing to substantial reductions in switching and inductor losses within a narrow input range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2018
    Assignee: VLT, Inc.
    Inventor: Patrizio Vinciarelli
  • Patent number: 10050534
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to electric converters and methods of controlling the same. One dual-active-bridge direct current to direct current (DC-DC) converter includes a transformer having a primary winding and a secondary winding, a first H-bridge connected to the primary winding, a second H-bridge connected to the secondary winding, and a current sensor structured to measure a current of the transformer. The first H-bridge includes a plurality of switch devices. The second H-bridge includes a plurality of switch devices. The dual-active-bridge DC-DC converter further includes a controller configured to control an on/off state for each of the plurality of switch devices of the first H-bridge and the plurality of switch devices of the second H-bridge based at least in part on the current of the transformer measured by the current sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2018
    Assignee: Cummins Power Generation IP, Inc.
    Inventors: Subbarao Dakshina Murthy-Bellur, Heng Yang, Minyu Cai
  • Patent number: 10050545
    Abstract: A method for operation of a single-ended forward converter to achieve “true soft switching” The method includes injecting, with a current source and in transformer winding, a narrow pulse of current via an injection winding of the transformer to add such pulse to the magnetizing current to exceed the current level of current passing through freewheeling rectifier to reduce that current to zero time when the freewheeling rectifier is turns off at zero current conditions. Further, the sum of the magnetizing current and the injected current provide the current required by the output inductor during the transition time. The amplitude of injected current is defined such that the sum is greater than the minimum current through the output inductor (at least by an amount that reflects into the primary winding). The amount of current reflected in the primary is chosen to be sufficiently large to discharge parasitic capacitances reflected across the primary main switch to zero during the transition time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2018
    Assignee: ROMPOWER TECHNOLOGY HOLDINGS, LLC
    Inventor: Ionel Jitaru
  • Patent number: 10033219
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to an energy supply device for providing an output voltage and an output current. The device includes a first operating state, a second operating state, a measuring assembly, and a signal generator. The measuring assembly is configured to sense a current amplitude of the output current of the energy supply device. The signal generator is configured to produce the output voltage and the output current. The signal generator is further configured to reduce a voltage amplitude of the output voltage of the energy supply device in the first operating state to change to the second operating state if the sensed current amplitude falls below a first current threshold value and to increase a voltage amplitude of the output voltage of the energy supply device in the second operating to change to the first operating state if the sensed current amplitude exceeds a second current threshold value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2018
    Assignee: Phoenix Contact GmbH Co. KG
    Inventors: Jochen Zeuch, Hartmut Henkel
  • Patent number: 10020733
    Abstract: A DC-to-DC converter includes an input voltage node, an inductor, and a switch coupled to the inductor and the input voltage node. More specifically, the switch has an on state and off state, wherein during the on state, current flowing through the inductor increases and the off state results in a decrease of the current flowing through the inductor via a driver coupled to the switch. The driver comprises a plurality of transistors and an adaptive voltage node, wherein a voltage level at the adaptive voltage node is to vary in accordance with the current flowing through the inductor so as to decrease a variation of the amount of time to turn off the switch.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2018
    Assignee: Texas Instruments Incorporated
    Inventor: Jianzhang Xie
  • Patent number: 10013005
    Abstract: Apparatus and method relating to voltage regulation is disclosed. In an apparatus thereof, an integrated circuit includes a first differential opamp having a first gain. The first differential opamp is configured to receive a reference voltage and a feedback voltage. A second differential opamp has a second gain less than the first gain. The second differential opamp is configured to receive the reference voltage and the feedback voltage. A driver transistor is configured to provide an output voltage at an output voltage node and to receive a gating voltage output from the second differential opamp. A differential output of the first differential opamp is configured for gating a current source transistor of the second differential opamp. A capacitor is connected to the driver transistor and the current source transistor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2018
    Assignee: XILINX, INC.
    Inventor: Sharat Babu Ippili
  • Patent number: 10015434
    Abstract: A switched-mode power supply and an associated television are disclosed. The switched-mode power supply includes a rectifier circuit, a transformer, a constant voltage control circuit, a power management circuit, and a constant current control circuit. An output terminal of the rectifier circuit is coupled both to a power detection terminal of the power management circuit and to a power input terminal of the transformer. A controlled terminal of the transformer is coupled to a control terminal of the power management circuit. A constant voltage output winding of the transformer is coupled through the constant voltage control circuit to a feedback input terminal of the power management circuit. A constant current output winding of the transformer is coupled to the constant current control circuit via an LED load. The solution of the present disclosure has the advantage of low cost.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2018
    Inventors: Jitao Yang, Jianzhong Chen
  • Patent number: 10008925
    Abstract: A control arrangement for use in controlling the electrical supply from a power supply unit including an internal capacitance. The control arrangement includes first and second magnetically linked inductors arranged in series with one another and defining a connection therebetween. Third and fourth magnetically linked inductors are each connected to the connection between the first and second inductors. A switch means provides switched connections between the third and fourth inductors and ground, and a controller is operable to control the operation of the switch means such that closing of a switch of the switch means results in the formation of an LCR circuit. The internal capacitance forms the capacitance of the LCR circuit and the third or fourth inductor form the inductance of the LCR circuit. The magnetic link between the third and fourth inductors allow an output to be generated from the other of the third and fourth inductors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2018
    Assignee: University of Plymouth
    Inventor: Mohammed Ahmed
  • Patent number: 10003248
    Abstract: In some examples, a method includes measuring, by a secondary controller, an output voltage and determining, by the secondary controller, a duration for a ringing time based on the output voltage. In some examples, the method further includes delivering, by the secondary controller, a non-enabling control signal to a secondary switch during the ringing time and measuring, by a primary controller, a duration of the ringing time. In some examples, the method also includes determining, by the primary controller, a duration for a charging time based on the duration of the ringing time and delivering, by the primary controller, an enabling control signal to a primary switch during the charging time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2018
    Assignee: Infineon Technologies Austria AG
    Inventor: Andrey Malinin
  • Patent number: 9998025
    Abstract: A high voltage power supply comprising a Line Powered Switcher module for converting a mains powered alternating current input to a direct current output and a High Voltage Switcher module for raising the voltage level of the direct current output. Both modules are independent switched mode power supplies and the high voltage power supply includes ripple, overcurrent and overvoltage protection as well as protection against electromagnetic interference.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 12, 2018
    Assignee: Westinghouse Electric Company LLC
    Inventor: Shawn C. Stafford