Patents by Inventor Andreas Knobloch

Andreas Knobloch 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: 20240125446
    Abstract: A lighting device (1) for a vehicle headlamp is provided. The lighting device includes an illuminant (2), a collimator (4), a mirror device (5) with a reflection surface (5a), and a DMD device (6). The mirror device (5) is arranged downstream of the collimator (4), wherein the reflection surface (5a) of the mirror device (5) is configured to reflect a first part of the light from the illuminant and to transmit a second part of the light from the illuminant. The mirror device (5) is configured in such a way that the reflected part is free of UV light and the transmitted part has UV light. The DMD device (6) is configured to modulate and deflect the first part of the light from the illuminant.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 9, 2023
    Publication date: April 18, 2024
    Inventors: Andreas HÖLZL, Christian KNOBLOCH, Stefan MITTERLEHNER
  • Publication number: 20230187942
    Abstract: In a method for operating a power supply plant having a plurality of inverters and a plant controller connected to the inverters for communication, the power supply plant has a grid connection, which is connected to an AC voltage grid. Via the grid connection, the inverters exchange electrical interchange powers with the AC voltage grid such that the power supply plant exchanges a total interchange power, composed of the respective electrical interchange powers, with the AC voltage grid. By means of a respective regulator, the inverters adjust their respective interchange powers depending on a respective deviation of a voltage profile of a grid voltage from a respective reference profile with respect to a respective reference frequency and/or depending on a respective voltage amplitude differential between a respective grid voltage and a respective reference voltage.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 17, 2023
    Publication date: June 15, 2023
    Inventors: Andreas Knobloch, Christian Hardt, Mats Bernsdorff, Daniel Premm
  • Patent number: 11658487
    Abstract: An energy generation system provides balancing power for an AC voltage grid, and comprises a photovoltaic generator and an energy store, wherein the energy generation system exchanges a total electrical power with the AC voltage grid (1), wherein the total power exchanged is set as a function of a current maximum PV power, a predefinable basic PV power between zero and the maximum PV power and a provided or requested balancing power. When no balancing power is requested: a total basic power, which comprises the basic PV power can be fed in; When a negative balancing power is requested: the PV power can be reduced compared to the basic PV power; When a positive balancing power is requested: a battery power can be drawn from the energy store if the requested positive balancing power is greater than the difference between the maximum PV power and the basic PV power.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 23, 2023
    Assignee: SMA Solar Technology AG
    Inventor: Andreas Knobloch
  • Publication number: 20230084081
    Abstract: A method for stabilizing a DC voltage in a DC grid that includes a DC bus connected to a higher-order grid and to which an energy generating system and at least one load are connected. A variable electric grid output is exchanged between the DC bus and the higher-order grid in order to keep the DC voltage in the DC bus at a nominal voltage. The energy generating system includes a PV generator connected to the DC bus via a DC-to-DC converter and which exchanges an electric generator output with the DC bus. In a normal operating mode, the generator output is set to a normal operating output by the DC-to-DC converter on the basis of an MPP output of the PV generator. In a grid support mode, the generator output is set to a grid support output on the basis of the DC voltage in the DC bus in order to counteract a power imbalance between the electric power supplied in total to the DC bus and the power drawn in total from the DC bus.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 23, 2022
    Publication date: March 16, 2023
    Inventor: Andreas Knobloch
  • Publication number: 20220304184
    Abstract: An inverter with a rated power of at least 3 kVA includes a first assembly which includes a first printed circuit board and a DC/AC converter stage, and a second assembly which includes a second printed circuit board and an EMC filter for the DC/AC converter stage. The first printed circuit board is mounted on a heat sink and lies substantially flat on the heat sink, and the DC/AC converter stage has converter components which comprise power semiconductors, chokes and link circuit capacitors. The chokes and the link circuit capacitors are arranged together on one side of the first printed circuit board, and the heat sink is arranged on the opposite side of the first printed circuit board, and the chokes and/or the power semiconductors are thermally connected to the heat sink via the first printed circuit board and a thermally conductive material arranged between the first printed circuit board and the heat sink.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 3, 2022
    Publication date: September 22, 2022
    Inventors: Klaus Rigbers, Thomas Wappler, Gerrit Braun, Andreas Knobloch, Matthias Rehbein
  • Patent number: 11409316
    Abstract: A method for operating an energy generation system containing a photovoltaic generator and an inverter, wherein electric power is transferred between the inverter and an AC voltage grid, and wherein the transferred electric power comprises an active power (P) and a reactive power (Q) is disclosed. The method includes operating the photovoltaic generator, in a first operating mode, at a maximum active power point (MPP) by way of the inverter, and setting the active power (P) of the photovoltaic generator via the inverter in a second operating mode depending on a grid frequency instantaneous value (f) and on a grid frequency rate of change (df/dt), and in the second operating mode, setting the reactive power (Q) depending on a grid voltage instantaneous value (U) and on a grid voltage rate of change (dU/dt).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2022
    Assignee: SMA Solar Technology AG
    Inventor: Andreas Knobloch
  • Publication number: 20210328434
    Abstract: An energy generation system provides balancing power for an AC voltage grid, and comprises a photovoltaic generator and an energy store, wherein the energy generation system exchanges a total electrical power with the AC voltage grid (1), wherein the total power exchanged is set as a function of a current maximum PV power, a predefinable basic PV power between zero and the maximum PV power and a provided or requested balancing power. When no balancing power is requested: a total basic power, which comprises the basic PV power can be fed in; When a negative balancing power is requested: the PV power can be reduced compared to the basic PV power; When a positive balancing power is requested: a battery power can be drawn from the energy store if the requested positive balancing power is greater than the difference between the maximum PV power and the basic PV power.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 28, 2021
    Publication date: October 21, 2021
    Inventor: Andreas Knobloch
  • Publication number: 20200409404
    Abstract: A method for operating an energy generation system containing a photovoltaic generator and an inverter, wherein electric power is transferred between the inverter and an AC voltage grid, and wherein the transferred electric power comprises an active power (P) and a reactive power (Q) is disclosed. The method includes operating the photovoltaic generator, in a first operating mode, at a maximum active power point (MPP) by way of the inverter, and setting the active power (P) of the photovoltaic generator via the inverter in a second operating mode depending on a grid frequency instantaneous value (f) and on a grid frequency rate of change (df/dt), and in the second operating mode, setting the reactive power (Q) depending on a grid voltage instantaneous value (U) and on a grid voltage rate of change (dU/dt).
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 9, 2020
    Publication date: December 31, 2020
    Inventor: Andreas Knobloch
  • Patent number: 10333426
    Abstract: A method and system for operating an inverter, which has a terminal with four conductor connectors for connection of the inverter to three outer conductors and to a neutral conductor of an AC voltage grid is disclosed. The method includes determining a connection configuration of the inverter to the AC voltage grid by actuating switching elements of a bridge circuit of the inverter to generate a zero-phase sequence system having a zero-phase sequence system current, and measuring and evaluating output currents of the inverter with respect to the zero-phase sequence system current. The method also includes identifying a presence of a connection of the neutral conductor to a conductor connector provided for connection to the neutral conductor when the zero-phase sequence system current exceeds a prescribed threshold value and identifying that the neutral conductor is not connected to the conductor connector provided for connection to the neutral conductor otherwise.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 25, 2019
    Assignee: SMA Solar Technology AG
    Inventors: Pablo Ignacio Correa Vasquez, Andreas Knobloch
  • Publication number: 20180191270
    Abstract: A method and system for operating an inverter, which has a terminal with four conductor connectors for connection of the inverter to three outer conductors and to a neutral conductor of an AC voltage grid is disclosed. The method includes determining a connection configuration of the inverter to the AC voltage grid by actuating switching elements of a bridge circuit of the inverter to generate a zero-phase sequence system having a zero-phase sequence system current, and measuring and evaluating output currents of the inverter with respect to the zero-phase sequence system current. The method also includes identifying a presence of a connection of the neutral conductor to a conductor connector provided for connection to the neutral conductor when the zero-phase sequence system current exceeds a prescribed threshold value and identifying that the neutral conductor is not connected to the conductor connector provided for connection to the neutral conductor otherwise.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 28, 2018
    Publication date: July 5, 2018
    Inventors: Pablo Ignacio Correa Vasquez, Andreas Knobloch
  • Patent number: 9941794
    Abstract: In order to reduce spurious emissions of a current converter or voltage converter having at least one power switch which is actuated with an actuating signal, wherein each actuating signal comprises switch-on pulses spaced apart from one another, and wherein pulse widths of the switch-on pulses are modulated in order to meet a specification for a current or a voltage in or at the current converter or voltage converter, the pulse widths are additionally varied more quickly and more strongly than is appropriate for meeting the specification in order to change the spectrum of the spurious emissions. In this context, changes to the pulse widths when they additionally vary compared to the pulse widths that would result only owing to their modulation to meet the specification are made on the basis of successive groups of changes which each extend over a predefined number of successive switch-on pulses and in which a sum of the changes is zero in each case.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2018
    Assignee: SMA Solar Technology AG
    Inventor: Andreas Knobloch
  • Publication number: 20170019027
    Abstract: In order to reduce spurious emissions of a current converter or voltage converter having at least one power switch which is actuated with an actuating signal, wherein each actuating signal comprises switch-on pulses spaced apart from one another, and wherein pulse widths of the switch-on pulses are modulated in order to meet a specification for a current or a voltage in or at the current converter or voltage converter, the pulse widths are additionally varied more quickly and more strongly than is appropriate for meeting the specification in order to change the spectrum of the spurious emissions. In this context, changes to the pulse widths when they additionally vary compared to the pulse widths that would result only owing to their modulation to meet the specification are made on the basis of successive groups of changes which each extend over a predefined number of successive switch-on pulses and in which a sum of the changes is zero in each case.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 30, 2016
    Publication date: January 19, 2017
    Inventor: Andreas Knobloch