Patents by Inventor Franklin B. Jones

Franklin B. Jones 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: 20040021459
    Abstract: An apparatus for determining the angular position of a rotating component having a plurality of angularly spaced magnetic elements is described. The apparatus includes a sensor board and a processor circuit. The sensor board is disposed adjacent to the rotating component and includes a plurality of sensor groups. Each sensor group includes a plurality of magnetic sensors positioned to sense a magnetic field of one of the angularly spaced magnetic elements. Each sensor group generates a multi-state group signal in response to the passage of one of the angularly spaced magnetic elements. The processor circuit communicates with each of the sensor groups and generates position signals in response to the multi-state group signals.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 12, 2003
    Publication date: February 5, 2004
    Inventors: Franklin B. Jones, Stuart A. Jones
  • Patent number: 5463250
    Abstract: A package for power semiconductor components permitting high thermal dissipation and current conductance and including a frame assembly bonded to a substrate on which a power semiconductor chip is mounted. The frame assembly has a wirebonding grid for connecting short, uniform length wirebonds to the surface of the chip. The grid is configured so as to have a portion overlaying and spaced from the chip a distance less than a distance required to connect a wirebond of optimal length to each anode cell of the chip. The package allows a high power semiconductor device to be used as a surface mount device or as a hockey puck.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 1994
    Date of Patent: October 31, 1995
    Assignee: Westinghouse Electric Corp.
    Inventors: Ngon B. Nguyen, Franklin B. Jones
  • Patent number: 5463252
    Abstract: A solid state circuit breaker utilizing fast acting solid state relays which are made up of individual switching circuit modules using silicon metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors or silicon carbide metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors. Depending on the power requirements, the individual modules may be arranged to provide heat dissipation while at the same time minimizing the total overall space occupied in the circuit breaker.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 1993
    Date of Patent: October 31, 1995
    Assignee: Westinghouse Electric Corp.
    Inventors: Franklin B. Jones, Ngon B. Nguyen, Leroy Laurandeau
  • Patent number: 5283463
    Abstract: In one embodiment, the invention is a packaged high power electronic switch in the form of a semiconductor chip having metalized planar cathode and anode terminals and a gate terminal. A refractory annular ring has planar open end faces and side walls having stepped portions. A pair of thermally and electrically conductive planar substrates is bonded to the opposite end faces of the annular ring and is maintained in spaced relation thereby, forming an enclosed space. At least one conductive strap within the space is supported by the stepped portion of the internal side wall and extends to one of the substrates forming an electrical and thermal path. One of said conductive substrates receives one of the planar terminals of the chip in intimate electrical and thermal contact. The strap is electrically coupled to the other of said terminals, for forming a high current path between the substrates via the strap.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 1992
    Date of Patent: February 1, 1994
    Assignee: Westinghouse Electric Corp.
    Inventors: Ngon B. Nguyen, Franklin B. Jones, Charles S. Kerfoot, Gene A. DiGennaro
  • Patent number: 5162965
    Abstract: A high-speed high-voltage FET current interrupter which opens the cathode circuit of microwave tubes when internal tube arcing occurs. By removing the detrimental fault current which causes degradation to the microwave tube body and grid, the longevity of the microwave tube and the pulse energy storage capacitor is greatly increased over those transmitters which use dissipative crow bar circuits. Even more important is that the transmitter reset time after an arc occurs is orders of magnitude faster than transmitters using crow bars or primary power interrupters when arcing occurs--an important feature when engaged in a "dog fight".
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 1991
    Date of Patent: November 10, 1992
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force
    Inventors: Walter E. Milberger, Franklin B. Jones, Charles S. Kerfoot
  • Patent number: 5124708
    Abstract: The disclosed system comprises a testing system which measures the stability of a moving target indicator radar transmitter. It automatically measures the imperfections of its internal in-phase (I)/quadrature (Q) demodulator, and it consists of a control computer, a synchronizer, a frequency synthesizer, an IQ demodulator, a low noise amplifier and a waveform recorder. A unit under test is inserted across the test set for measurement and calibration. The system set has the following features: (a) An automatic calibration routine that requires a tunable RF source. This source provides the RF drive to the UUT. (b) A discontinuous analog to digital (A/D) sample clock that has a precise controllable relationship with the RF pulse. The A/D sample clock samples only during the presence of the RF. (c) A method for computing stability using a table of amplitude and phase weighting coefficients and pulse positions. This table is generated by the user and any desired combination of values is possible.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 1991
    Date of Patent: June 23, 1992
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force
    Inventors: David C. Mackes, Franklin B. Jones
  • Patent number: 5122730
    Abstract: The high voltage regulator employs a field effect transistor (FET) amplifier and a shielded wide band frequency compensated RC voltage divider. The device comprises a FET amplifier used as a current source in a 20 KV power supply. The negative output of the supply is sensed by the voltage divider consisting of two resistors in parallel with two capacitors for frequency compensation. The voltage divider output is applied to the non-inverting input of an operational amplifier whose reference is set to affect the linear operation of an inverting operational amplifier. In the voltage divider, a variable high voltage quartz glass piston capacitor is used to set the RC product of the high level arm equal to that of the low level arm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 1991
    Date of Patent: June 16, 1992
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force
    Inventors: Walter E. Milberger, Charles S. Kerfoot, Franklin B. Jones
  • Patent number: 5111382
    Abstract: A high power, high frequency inverter has series/parallel resonant inverter elements and employs MOS controlled thyristors (MCTs) in the switching circuit. The resonant inverter elements include a split inductor for reducing peak voltage across the switches. A fault protection circuit cause the power interruption for a short interval before restarting the circuit. High current density is achieved by means of multilayer ceramic chip capacitors and gap ferrite planar inductors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 1990
    Date of Patent: May 5, 1992
    Assignee: Westinghouse Electric Corp.
    Inventors: Franklin B. Jones, Ray S. Kemerer, Charles E. Carter, Charles S. Kerfoot
  • Patent number: 5070538
    Abstract: The high voltage regulator employs a field effect transistor (FET) amplifier and a wide band frequency compensated RC voltage divider. The device comprises a FET amplifier used as a current source in a 20 KV power supply. The negative output of the supply is sensed by a voltage divider consisting of two resistors in parallel with two capacitors. The voltage divider output is applied to the non-inverting input of an operational amplifier whose reference is set to affect the linear operation of an inverting operational amplifier. A no load to full load and line regulation of 0.1% is provided to a microwave tube. For a 16-KV regulated output the inverting amplifier must have a dc operation point of 4 KV to accommodate a 20% storage capacitor voltage droop and a .+-.5% line change. At this level the inverting amplifier provides a swing of .+-.4 KV. This range allows for a large line voltage variation and storage capacitor voltage droop.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 2, 1990
    Date of Patent: December 3, 1991
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force
    Inventors: Walter E. Milberger, Charles S. Kerfoot, Franklin B. Jones
  • Patent number: 5032799
    Abstract: A cascode radio frequency amplifier in which a control amplifier stage is provided and any number of clone amplifier stages are connected in series (cascode) with the control amplifier. The cascode amplifiers provide equal voltage and power since each of the clone stages provides unity gain. The device can operate from low frequencies to high frequencies.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 26, 1990
    Date of Patent: July 16, 1991
    Assignee: Westinghouse Electric Corp.
    Inventors: Walter E. Milberger, Charles S. Kerfoot, Daniel C. Buck, Franklin B. Jones
  • Patent number: 4939450
    Abstract: A high voltage pulse regulator which is capable of measuring and correcting voltage perturbations on the top of a high voltage square wave pulse is disclosed. The regulator uses: a rectifying diode, an oscilloscope, a variable zener diode, a variable biasing current source and pulse capacitor. The rectifying diode receives and rectifies the high voltage square wave pulse from a high voltage pulse source to produce a rectified square wave pulse. The rectified square wave pulse is received and regulated to a voltage level acceptable to the oscilloscope by the variable zener diode pulse capacitor, and current source, which are connected together in a parallel circuit and act as follows. The variable zener diode is activated by the biasing current.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 1989
    Date of Patent: July 3, 1990
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force
    Inventors: Walter E. Milberger, Franklin B. Jones, Charles S. Kerfoot
  • Patent number: 4897617
    Abstract: This high voltage linear FET amplifier operates at voltage levels of ten's of thousand's of volts with power dissipation capabilities in the kilowatt range. It is a broadband device which features power amplification from DC to frequencies well in excess of 100 KHz. The amplifier uses a unity-gain inverting amplifier as its basic building block. N-number of these building blocks are stacked to accommodate whatever voltage stand-off level is desired. To operate stacked high voltage amplifiers, it is necessary to provide a bias shift (reference) progressively increasing in equal increments from the ground reference stage to the highest voltage level stage while preserving the fidelity of the signal applied to the first stage. This is done by establishing a phantom ground at all amplifiers for each progressive bias level.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 1989
    Date of Patent: January 30, 1990
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force
    Inventors: Walter E. Milberger, Franklin B. Jones, Charles S. Kerfoot
  • Patent number: 4893070
    Abstract: A High Voltage Regulation apparatus which uses an amplifier having an arbitrarily large number of stacked MOSFETs to provide low impedance shunt regulation with a "domino effect". Voltages of many kilovolts can be conveniently regulated. voltage sharing among the devices is assured by the domino arrangement. External capacitances are added to optimize low impedance voltage regulation, including an external capacitor connected between the drain and gate of each stage to equalize the drain to gate and gate to source capacitances. There may also be an external capacitor connected between the drain and source of each stage to provide low amplifier impedance at high frequency, or a lumped external capacitor connected across the entire amplifier string, to provide low amplifier impedance at high frequency. The amplifier uses a unity-gain inverting amplifier as its basic building block. N-number of these building blocks are stacked to accommodate whatever voltage stand-off level is desired.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 1989
    Date of Patent: January 9, 1990
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force
    Inventors: Walter E. Milberger, Charles S. Kerfoot, Franklin B. Jones
  • Patent number: 4754176
    Abstract: High voltage is connected and disconnected in less than a microsecond from a high voltage power supply to a radar transmitter using a solid state relay. The solid state relay supplies this high voltage using multiple power MOSFETs, which are serially-connected between the source and the load. The gate of each power MOSFET is simultaneously triggered by trigger circuits which, in turn, are activated and coupled by a single turn transformer. The transformer is driven by a pair of field effect transistors, which are activated by a pair of open collector comparators. The open collector comparators only activate when they receive a signal indicating that the radar transmitter should transmit a waveform.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 28, 1986
    Date of Patent: June 28, 1988
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force
    Inventors: Franklin B. Jones, Robert W. Wachtler, III
  • Patent number: 4698742
    Abstract: A high-voltage converter circuit which uses a slip slide power conditioner to reduce non-monotonic non-linearities in the converter output signal is disclosed. The slip slide power conditioner includes: a choke feed D.C. circulator; two radio frequency (RF) power pumps; a phase detector; a phase controller; and a combiner. The choke feed D.C. circulator receives the D.C. input signal and produces therefrom two voltage output signals which are each sent to one of the two RF power pumps. The two RF power pumps produce two out-of-phase square wave output signals which are algebraically combined in the combiner to form an output signal whose amplitude is a function of phase difference. The phase detector and phase controller sample this output signal and adjust the phase of the two power pumps to remove non-linearities due to secondary ranging (resonance) that beats with harmonics of their square wave signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 1, 1986
    Date of Patent: October 6, 1987
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force
    Inventors: Franklin B. Jones, Walter E. Milberger, David E. Bulgher, Charles S. Kerfoot
  • Patent number: 4686448
    Abstract: A programmable slewing power supply is used to drive microwave phase shifters according to a command signal from a system controller using: a Milberger converter; a power source; a rectifying circuit; two differential amplifier circuits; and two comparator amplifier circuits. The Milberger converter outputs a combined square wave which it produces by combining two independent square waves which add or cancel. The power source receives the combined square wave and outputs: a reference voltage, a positive voltage signal; and a negative voltage signal. The rectifying circuit produces a rectified command signal by rectifying the command signal from the system controller. The two differential amplifier circuits respectively measure the positive and negative voltage signals with respect to the reference voltage to produce a measured positive voltage signal, and a measured negative voltage signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 1, 1986
    Date of Patent: August 11, 1987
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force
    Inventors: Franklin B. Jones, Charles S. Kerfoot, Walter E. Milberger
  • Patent number: 4683387
    Abstract: A field effect transistor (FET) quadrature switch for the control of multi mode microwave phase shifters provides bi-directional random mode switching while using only one power supply. The switch apparatus provides high speed, high voltage, and high-current switching while reducing the stand off voltage requirement of the linear driver, the number of switching elements which are required for mechanization, and reducing the size, weight and the complexity of the apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 1985
    Date of Patent: July 28, 1987
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force
    Inventors: Franklin B. Jones, Walter E. Milberger, Charles S. Kerfoot
  • Patent number: 4667144
    Abstract: A MOSFET isolation amplifier apparatus to allow stable high frequency linear operation of MOSFET power stages and to provide precise regulation of a load current through a magnetic yoke load. Variations of transfer characteristics and input parameters in the MOSFET power stages are corrected by use of a feedback signal which is generated in a current sense resistor by the load current. Such a power stage allows the implementation of isolation amplifiers which can provide high power high frequency linear regulation at elevated voltages and currents.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 1986
    Date of Patent: May 19, 1987
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force
    Inventors: Franklin B. Jones, Walter E. Milberger
  • Patent number: 4577166
    Abstract: A pulsed modulator apparatus having a ground deck clock driver unit to provide pulse stretching and on-off trigger signals for a floating deck transistor switch unit. Voltage isolation is achieved between the ground and floating deck units through the use of trigger transformers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 22, 1984
    Date of Patent: March 18, 1986
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force
    Inventors: Walter E. Milberger, Franklin B. Jones
  • Patent number: H275
    Abstract: A low level input pulse signal from T.sup.2 L logic is delivered to the it of a ground deck driver which is transformer-coupled to a floating deck driver. The leading edge of the input pulse serves to enable or trigger a first FET driver, which is coupled to the gates of a plurality of series-connected FETs via a first transmission line transformer. The triggering of the FET driver serves to turn-on the series-connected FETs so that the same delivers a high voltage signal to an output load. A second FET driver is coupled to the gates of another plurality of series-connected FETs, which serve as a "tail-biter" to terminate the power to the output load. And, a third FET driver is coupled to the gates of the first-mentioned series-connected FETs to turn the same to the OFF state. The second and third FET drivers are coupled to their respective series-connected FETs via respective transmission line transformers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 1986
    Date of Patent: May 5, 1987
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army
    Inventors: Walter E. Milberger, Franklin B. Jones, Charles S. Kerfoot