Patents Examined by Yusef A Ahmed
  • Patent number: 11936291
    Abstract: Circuits and methods that more effectively and efficiently solving the charge-balance problem for multi-level converter circuits by establishing a control method that selects an essentially optimal pattern or set of switch states that moves the fly capacitors towards a charge-balance state or maintains the current charge state every time a voltage level at an output node is selected regardless of what switch state or states were used in the past. Accordingly, multi-level converter circuit embodiments of the invention are free to select a different switch state or output voltage level every switching cycle without needing to keep track of any prior switch state or sequence of switch states. Additional benefits include improved transient performance made possible by the novel charge-balance method.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2024
    Assignee: pSemi Corporation
    Inventor: Gregory Szczeszynski
  • Patent number: 11936303
    Abstract: A power conversion device includes a controller configured to alternately turn on a second upper arm and a second lower arm of a first bridge circuit such that on-times thereof do not overlap each other to increase power stored in a resonance capacitor of the first bridge circuit in a state in which a first leg of the first bridge circuit is turned off when transmitting power from a second bridge circuit to the first bridge circuit and performing step-up operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2024
    Assignee: FUJI ELECTRIC CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Yukihiro Nishikawa
  • Patent number: 11936298
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a high-side transistor drive circuit, a switching circuit and a controller of a DC/DC converter. A pulse generator generates a first pulse that becomes high level for a certain period of time in response to a first edge of an input signal and a second pulse that becomes high level for a certain period of time in response to a second edge of the input signal. An open drain circuit has a first output node that becomes low level in response to the first pulse and a second output node that becomes low level in response to the second pulse. A first current mirror circuit folds back a first current flowing through the first output node of the open drain circuit. A second current mirror circuit folds back a second current flowing through the second output node of the open drain circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2024
    Assignee: ROHM CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Tsutomu Ishino
  • Patent number: 11929683
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides an isolated multi-phase DC/DC converter with a reduced quantity of blocking capacitors. In one aspect, the converter includes a multi-phase transformer having a primary circuit and a secondary circuit magnetically coupled to the primary circuit, the primary circuit having a first quantity of terminals, and the secondary circuit having a second quantity of terminals; a third quantity of blocking capacitors, each being electrically connected in series to a respective one of the terminals of the primary circuit; and a fourth quantity of blocking capacitors, each being electrically connected in series to a respective one of the terminals of the secondary circuit. The third quantity is one less than the first quantity. The fourth quantity is one less than the second quantity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2024
    Assignee: DELTA ELECTRONICS, INC.
    Inventors: Jong Woo Kim, Peter Mantovanelli Barbosa
  • Patent number: 11923784
    Abstract: A pyramid-type multilevel converter for converting DC voltage to AC voltage waveforms, and vice versa. An example device can use modular building blocks to form a selector stage, a converter stage, and at least one intermediate stage if the number of converters within the converter stage is greater than or equal to 3, with the converter stage switching at high-frequency PWM to chop the DC voltages. The modular building blocks are connected in a symmetric or asymmetric pyramid configuration having a base of using the converter stage and an apex of the selector stage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2024
    Assignee: The Regents of the University of California
    Inventors: Vahid Dargahi, Keith A. Corzine
  • Patent number: 11923779
    Abstract: A method of regulating an output voltage of a switched mode power supply having a variable input voltage and at least one power switch is provided. The method includes generating a control signal for the at least one power switch of the switched mode power supply based at least in part on a control voltage, the control signal having a duty cycle. The method also includes generating a reference voltage based at least in part on the duty cycle of the control signal and a maximum duty cycle, and generating the control voltage based at least in part on the reference voltage and the output voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2024
    Assignee: Astec International Limited
    Inventors: Bing Zhang, Lian Liang, Mei Qin, Xiaodong Fan, Guozhen Wang
  • Patent number: 11923786
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are systems and methods for operation of a switched capacitor converter (SCC). In some variations, the SCC includes a resonant circuit including an inductor. Aspects of the disclosure include methods for controlling the SCC switches to decrease switching losses associated with operating the converter and to increase efficiency of the SCC. According to some aspects, a control method is used to switch converter switches under zero-voltage conditions. According to some aspects, a control method is used to switch converter switches under zero-current conditions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2024
    Assignee: Solaredge Technologies Ltd.
    Inventors: Milan Ilic, Ramesh Govindarajan, Sang Dong Lee
  • Patent number: 11909323
    Abstract: A power converter includes a primary side circuit, a secondary side circuit, a transformer, and a controller. A primary side of the transformer is connected to the primary side circuit, and a secondary side of the transformer is connected to the secondary side circuit. The primary side circuit includes a resonant circuit. The secondary side circuit is configured to supply electric energy to the transformer. The transformer is configured to supply the electric energy to the primary side circuit. The primary side circuit is configured to convert the electric energy. The controller is connected to the secondary side circuit, and is configured to control, in a control cycle, the secondary side circuit to supply the electric energy to the transformer. Duration of the control cycle is greater than or equal to duration of a resonance cycle of the resonant circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2024
    Assignee: HUAWEI DIGITAL POWER TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Tianyu Wang, Weiping Liu
  • Patent number: 11901804
    Abstract: A power supplying circuit includes a first high-voltage switch, a first low-voltage switch, a second high-voltage switch, a second low-voltage switch, and a controller circuit. The first high-voltage switch receives a first input voltage and generates a first node voltage. The first low-voltage switch is coupled between the first high-voltage switch and an output terminal. The second high-voltage switch receives a second input voltage and generates a second node voltage. The second low-voltage switch is coupled between the second high-voltage switch and the output terminal. The controller circuit controls the first high-voltage switch, the first low-voltage switch, the second high-voltage switch, and the second low-voltage switch according to the first node voltage and the second node voltage such that an output voltage is outputted to the output terminal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: Realtek Semiconductor Corporation
    Inventors: Jiun Hung Pan, Leaf Chen
  • Patent number: 11901826
    Abstract: An efficient control method for an isolated multilevel DC/DC resonant converter achieves a wide output voltage range with a narrow device switching frequency range, relative to the output voltage range and the device switching frequency range of the prior art. At any given time, a control circuit selects one of three different modulation schemes to operate the primary-side switching devices of the resonant converter based on at least one of output voltage, output current, input signal, and one or more external control signals. Together with a selected device switching frequency, the three modulation schemes generate different voltage waveforms to a primary-side transformer, which are coupled to the secondary-side to provide different output voltages.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: DELTA ELECTRONICS, INC.
    Inventors: Chi Zhang, Peter Barbosa
  • Patent number: 11901828
    Abstract: Related to is a bidirectional CLLC circuit with a coupled inductor, which is associated with a circuit topology and operation control of a bidirectional CLLC resonant converter. Provided is a structure of a bidirectional CLLC resonant circuit with a coupled inductor, including a primary side bridge, a secondary side bridge, a primary side resonant capacitor, a secondary side resonant capacitor, a coupled resonant inductor, and a transformer. Compared with a structure of a conventional bidirectional CLLC resonant circuit, two separate resonant inductors located at a primary side and a secondary side in an original resonant cavity are replaced with one coupled resonant inductor in the circuit; the coupled resonant inductor has opposite dotted terminals with the transformer, and a primary side and a secondary side of the coupled resonant inductor are respectively in serial connection with a primary side and a secondary side of the transformer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 16, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: Zhejiang University
    Inventors: Min Chen, Ning Chen, Bodong Li, Dongbo Zhang, Xiaoqing Wang, Xinnan Sun, Zhaopei Liang
  • Patent number: 11901812
    Abstract: According to some embodiments, a power converter is disclosed. The power converter includes an input electromagnetic interference filter to receive raw AC power and to output filtered AC power. A type-pi filter, and switch, receives the filtered AC power, further filters the received filtered AC power, and receives an indication from a digital controller module that an amplitude, frequency, and phase information of the filtered AC voltage is within a range of acceptable values and outputs the further filtered AC Power. The power conversion circuit receives a signal from the digital controller, receives the further filtered AC power from the type-pi filter and switch, converts the further filtered AC power to a desired voltage and outputs converted AC power. An output electromagnetic interference filter receives the converted AC power from the output electromagnetic interference filter and outputs the filtered converted AC power.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2023
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Inventor: Xiaobin Yang
  • Patent number: 11901811
    Abstract: The present invention relates to an AC-DC power converter which includes a resonant DC-DC converter and a charge pump circuit. The charge pump circuit is configured to perform power factor correction of the AC-DC power converter by drawing current pulses at a switching frequency of the converter from an AC line voltage such that electrical charges of the current pulses vary substantially proportionally with instantaneous amplitude of the AC line voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: DANMARKS TEKNISKE UNIVERSITET
    Inventors: Ahmed Morsi Ammar, Yasser A. A. Nour, Arnold Knott
  • Patent number: 11894776
    Abstract: A power converter includes a primary H-bridge with switches and an LCL-Transformer section with a first inductor with a first end connected to a first terminal of the primary H-bridge, a capacitor connected between a second end of the first inductor and a second terminal of the primary H-bridge, and a second inductor with a first end connected to the second end of the first inductor. The converter includes a transformer with a primary connected between a second end of the second inductor and the second terminal of the primary H-bridge, a secondary H-bridge with switches with an input connected to a secondary side of the transformer, and an output capacitor connected across output terminals of the secondary H-bridge. The primary H-bridge is fed by a DC constant current source and the output terminals of the secondary H-bridge have a regulated DC output voltage are connected to a load.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2024
    Assignee: Utah State University
    Inventors: Tarak Saha, Anindya Chitta Bagchi, Regan A. Zane, Hongjie Wang
  • Patent number: 11894766
    Abstract: Disclosed is a three-phase interleaved resonant converter, which includes a three-phase inversion circuit connected to an input voltage and including a first output node, a second output node, and a third output node, a three-phase transformer including three transformers, a three-phase resonant circuit including three resonant capacitors and three resonant inductors, and a three-phase rectifier filter circuit. One ends of the three resonant inductors are respectively connected to the first output node, the second output node and the third output node, and the other ends of the three resonant inductors are respectively connected to a triangular configuration formed by an alternate connection of the three resonant capacitors with primary windings of the three transformers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2024
    Assignee: Lite-On Electronics (Guangzhou) Limited
    Inventors: Yan Li, Lu Sun, PeiXian Lv, XiaoQiang Li
  • Patent number: 11881787
    Abstract: A power converter with secondary side active clamp. At least one example is a method including: limiting a push-phase voltage excursion of a phase node on a secondary side of a power converter during a push phase of a primary side of the power converter, the limiting by extracting current from the phase node and storing the current on a clamp capacitor; limiting a pull-phase voltage excursion of the phase node on the secondary side of the power converter during a pull phase of the primary side of the power converter, the limiting by extracting current from the phase node and storing the current on a clamp capacitor; and utilizing the current stored on the clamp capacitor to drive a component on the secondary side.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2024
    Assignee: SEMICONDUCTOR COMPONENTS INDUSTRIES, LLC
    Inventor: Alessandro Zafarana
  • Patent number: 11876438
    Abstract: Provided are embodiments for a system for reducing input harmonic distortion of a power supply. The system includes a power source coupled to a power supply. The power supply includes an input stage that is configured to receive an input signal from the power-supply, wherein the input signal is received at known input frequency, and a converting stage that is operated to convert the input signal to an output signal, wherein the output signal has an output frequency. The power supply also includes an output stage that is operated to generate output power based on the output signal, and a controller that is configured to provide control signals to the output stage of the power supply to modify the output signal. Also provided are embodiments for a power supply and method for reducing input harmonic distortion of the power supply.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 3, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 16, 2024
    Assignee: Innomotics GmbH
    Inventors: Yusuke Fukuta, Mukul Rastogi, Richard H. Osman
  • Patent number: 11862377
    Abstract: This application relates to the field of electronic technologies, and discloses a transformer and a power supply, to provide a magnetic cylinder distribution structure of a magnetic core while reducing a winding loss by using fractional turn, where the magnetic cylinder distribution structure of the magnetic core is conveniently to implement, thereby reducing product costs. The transformer includes a magnetic core, where the magnetic core includes a first magnetic cylinder and a second magnetic cylinder. One end of the first magnetic cylinder is coupled to one end of the second magnetic cylinder and the other end of the first magnetic cylinder is coupled to the other end of the second magnetic cylinder, to form an annulus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2024
    Assignee: HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Wei Tan, Jiebin Cheng, Peng Xian, Qiong Ye
  • Patent number: 11855544
    Abstract: A synchronous average harmonic current controller is used to simultaneously control line load current and switching transformer current for a resonant power converter. The controller takes its feedback input from a current command and a bridge current sensor which measures total current flowing between the bridge switching nodes. The controller is implemented using an inverting switched capacitor filter. The filter switches two capacitors across the output and inverting node of an error amplifier to integrate and compensate current error synchronously over each half of the fundamental period. The superimposed non-modulated common and modulated difference feedback signals apply duty cycle and phase control which reduces the synchronous average error current. As a result of synchronous average current control of the line load and transformer currents, the primary and secondary bridge have a defined voltage relationship which is straightforward to regulate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2023
    Assignee: Lee Fredrik Mazurek
    Inventor: Lee Fredrik Mazurek
  • Patent number: 11855545
    Abstract: A voltage controlled bridge is coupled to a line voltage and a transformer primary harmonic voltage, and a current controlled bridge is coupled to a line current and a transformer secondary harmonic voltage. A synchronous average harmonic current compensator integrates error between a measure of bridge current and commanded current synchronously over each half of a switching period and samples compensator output to control line current and linearize harmonic coupling between isolated bridges. A synchronous pulse width modulation process tracks commanded line voltage. One or more of a primary harmonic command circuit and secondary harmonic command circuit adjust the harmonic coupling voltage of the voltage controlled and current controlled bridge respectively. Line voltage, line current, and primary and secondary harmonic commands provide generalized line and isolated voltage bus regulation degrees of freedom in a single stage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2023
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2023
    Inventor: Lee Fredrik Mazurek