Patents by Inventor Lihua Chen

Lihua Chen 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).

  • Electric drive with input inductor based variable voltage converter
    Patent number: 10505449
    Abstract: A vehicle electric drive includes a battery, an inverter, and a power converter electrically between the battery and inverter. The power converter includes series switches activated at a predefined switching frequency, a series capacitor and non-gapped inductor, and an inductor electrically between the non-gapped inductor and series switches. The non-gapped inductor defines an inductance proportional to an inverse of a product of a capacitance of the capacitor and the switching frequency squared.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2019
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Baoming Ge, Lihua Chen
  • Single supply hybrid drive resonant gate driver
    Patent number: 10500959
    Abstract: A gate driver of a power device includes an inductor and a supply. The inductor is configured to, during a transitional period of the power device, convert a potential on a gate to a field, and the field to an opposite potential to toggle the gate and charge a floating capacitor to the opposite potential as an excess field collapses. The supply is configured to maintain the gate at the potential and generate the excess field during a non-transitional period.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2019
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Shuitao Yang, Yan Zhou, Lihua Chen, Fan Xu
  • Adaptive boost voltage for hybrid vehicle operation
    Patent number: 10500966
    Abstract: A powertrain includes a DC-DC converter, an electric machine, and a controller. The DC-DC converter may be configured to output a bus voltage. The controller may be configured to, in response to a torque request exceeding an available torque of the electric machine, command the converter to boost the bus voltage to a discrete step value selected from a predetermined number of available discrete step values, that changes in response to a selected operating mode of the powertrain changing, to increase the available torque.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2019
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Lihua Chen, Yan Zhou, Shuitao Yang, Mohammed Khorshed Alam, Fan Xu
  • INTERLEAVED VARIABLE VOLTAGE CONVERTER
    Publication number: 20190366850
    Abstract: An interleaved DC-DC converter includes a non-gapped coupled inductor with first, second, and third windings. The converter also includes first, second, and third legs in parallel. The first leg has silicon carbide or silicon nitride switches, and the second and third legs have silicon switches. A controller modulates the switches of the first leg at a frequency greater than a frequency of the switches of the second and third legs.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 4, 2018
    Publication date: December 5, 2019
    Inventors: Baoming Ge, Lihua Chen
  • Dynamic IGBT gate drive for vehicle traction inverters
    Patent number: 10491095
    Abstract: A hybrid electric vehicle includes a traction battery, traction motor and power inverter therebetween. The power inverter converts the DC power of the traction battery to AC power to drive each phase of the traction motor. The power inverter includes Insulated Gate Bipolar junction Transistors (IGBTs) to modulate the power to the traction motor. The speed at which the IGBTs are modulated impacts the system performance including power loss, voltage overshoot and current overshoot. Using a dual emitter IGBT to provide a current mirror of the drive current, circuitry may be used with the gate drive circuitry such that the gate drive speed may be dynamically adjusted based on characteristics including temperature and traction motor rotational speed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Lihua Chen, Dong Cao, Shailesh Shrikant Kozarekar, Shahram Zarei, Hongjie Wu, Yuqing Tang
  • Wireless power transfer with generalized harmonic current
    Patent number: 10491028
    Abstract: A wireless charging arrangement has primary side circuitry including a voltage source, switches, and a primary coil arranged to couple with a secondary coil. The primary side circuitry forms a series resonant converter when transferring power from the primary coil to the secondary coil. The wireless charging arrangement also includes a controller to selectively activate the switches to cause the transferring such that for each fundamental cycle, a pair of consecutive active resonant cycles have same polarity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Shuitao Yang, Fan Xu, Baoming Ge, Lihua Chen, Mohammed Khorshed Alam
  • Common-mode choke for paralleled power semiconductor
    Patent number: 10476380
    Abstract: A power module includes a plurality of switching devices. The switching devices are electrically coupled in parallel and triggered by a common gate signal. The switching devices are further attached to a substrate that includes a first coil and a second coil formed around a common axis to define a common mode choke in a gate path and a Kelvin source/emitter path of each of the switching devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 15, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2019
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Fan Xu, Lihua Chen, Shahram Zarei
  • Variable resistance power switch feedback
    Patent number: 10432186
    Abstract: A vehicle powertrain has a power inverter that includes a load switch with a main emitter and a current mirror emitter, a variable resistor coupled between the current mirror emitter and the main emitter, and a controller. The controller may be configured to adjust a gate voltage based on a voltage across the variable resistor, and responsive to the gate voltage exceeding a Miller plateau gate voltage, increase a variable resistor resistance such that feedback increases as the load switch saturates.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 1, 2019
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Shuitao Yang, Yan Zhou, Lihua Chen, Fan Xu, Mohammed Khorshed Alam, Baoming Ge
  • WIRELESS POWER TRANSFER WITH GENERALIZED HARMONIC CURRENT
    Publication number: 20190296573
    Abstract: A wireless charging arrangement has primary side circuitry including a voltage source, switches, and a primary coil arranged to couple with a secondary coil. The primary side circuitry forms a series resonant converter when transferring power from the primary coil to the secondary coil. The wireless charging arrangement also includes a controller to selectively activate the switches to cause the transferring such that for each fundamental cycle, a pair of consecutive active resonant cycles have same polarity.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 23, 2018
    Publication date: September 26, 2019
    Inventors: Shuitao Yang, Fan Xu, Baoming Ge, Lihua Chen, Mohammed Khorshed Alam
  • Power module with multi-layer substrate
    Patent number: 10403558
    Abstract: A power system has a single-side-cooled power module including a contiguous five-layer substrate of two insulative layers interleaved with three conductive layers. A center one of the conductive layers is partitioned to define discrete spaced apart positive terminal and output terminal portions, and an outer of the conductive layers defines a negative terminal portion such that the positive terminal and negative terminal portions overlap. The power system also has semiconductors respectively in direct contact with the positive terminal and output terminal portions without directly contacting the other layers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 23, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2019
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Fan Xu, Lihua Chen, Sadashi Seto, Shuitao Yang, Yan Zhou, Baoming Ge
  • INTERLEAVED VARIABLE VOLTAGE CONVERTER
    Publication number: 20190267888
    Abstract: A vehicle powertrain includes a direct-current (DC)-DC power converter and a controller. The DC-DC power converter includes first, second, and third legs in parallel, wherein the first leg is configured to carry a first DC current substantially equal to a sum of DC currents of the second and third legs. The controller may be configured to modulate switches of the first leg at a frequency greater than at least twice that of the second and third legs.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 26, 2018
    Publication date: August 29, 2019
    Inventors: Baoming Ge, Lihua Chen, Shahram Zarei, Fan Xu
  • GATE LOOP DIFFERENTIAL MODE CHOKE FOR PARALLEL POWER DEVICE SWITCHING CURRENT BALANCE
    Publication number: 20190267986
    Abstract: A power electronics module is arranged to pass power between a traction battery and electric machine, and includes a pair of parallel power transistors and a differential mode choke arranged to, responsive to current flow through the choke, drive gate voltages of the power transistors apart to reduce differences in current magnitudes output by the transistors.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 25, 2018
    Publication date: August 29, 2019
    Inventors: Fan Xu, Lihua Chen, Baoming Ge, Yan Zhou, Shuitao Yang
  • Active discharge circuit for link capacitor using phase leg switches
    Patent number: 10384561
    Abstract: A DC link capacitor in a drive system for an electric vehicle is quickly discharged using only local action within an inverter module and without any extra components to dissipate the charge. The inverter has a phase leg comprising an upper switching device and a lower switching device coupled across the capacitor. A gate driver is coupled to the phase leg to alternately switch the switching devices to ON state according to a PWM signal during pulse-width modulation of the drive system. The gate driver is configured to discharge the link capacitor during a discharge event by simultaneously activating the upper and lower switching devices to transitional states. Thus use of transitional states ensures that the switching devices provide an impedance that dissipates the capacitor charge while protecting the devices from excessive temperature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 20, 2019
    Assignee: FORD GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
    Inventors: Shuitao Yang, Yan Zhou, Fan Xu, Mohammed Khorshed Alam, Lihua Chen
  • Gate loop differential mode choke for parallel power device switching current balance
    Patent number: 10389352
    Abstract: A power electronics module is arranged to pass power between a traction battery and electric machine, and includes a pair of parallel power transistors and a differential mode choke arranged to, responsive to current flow through the choke, drive gate voltages of the power transistors apart to reduce differences in current magnitudes output by the transistors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 20, 2019
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Fan Xu, Lihua Chen, Baoming Ge, Yan Zhou, Shuitao Yang
  • VEHICULAR TRACTION INVERTER TEMPERATURE CONTROL SYSTEM
    Publication number: 20190223330
    Abstract: A vehicular system includes a pump, configured to circulate coolant for a traction inverter, and a controller, The controller may be configured to, responsive to each of a temperature of the traction inverter falling outside a first range or a requested flow rate of the pump falling outside a second range, operate the pump at a predefined speed, otherwise, operate the pump at a speed based on a difference between the temperature and a temperature associated with the coolant.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 12, 2018
    Publication date: July 18, 2019
    Inventors: Lihua Chen, Baoming Ge, Fan Wang, Shahram Zarei, Fan Xu, Mohammed Khorshed Alam, Yan Zhou, Shuitao Yang, Petros G. Taskas
  • COMMON-MODE CHOKE FOR PARALLELED POWER SEMICONDUCTOR
    Publication number: 20190222118
    Abstract: A power module includes a plurality of switching devices. The switching devices are electrically coupled in parallel and triggered by a common gate signal. The switching devices are further attached to a substrate that includes a first coil and a second coil formed around a common axis to define a common mode choke in a gate path and a Kelvin source/emitter path of each of the switching devices.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 15, 2018
    Publication date: July 18, 2019
    Inventors: Fan XU, Lihua CHEN, Shahram ZAREI
  • INTERLEAVED DC-DC CONVERTER FOR ELECTRIFIED VEHICLES
    Publication number: 20190181766
    Abstract: A DC-DC voltage converter for an electric vehicle connects between a battery pack and a DC link having upper and lower link capacitors. When a target voltage on the link is less than twice the battery voltage, the capacitors are charged in series from two interleaved switching legs of the converter simultaneously for part of the time, and charged in series from only one of the switching legs for part of the time. When the target voltage is between 2 and 4 times the battery voltage, the upper capacitor is charged alone from both legs for part of the time, the upper capacitor is charged alone from only one of the legs for part of the time, the lower capacitor is charged alone from both legs for part of the time, and the lower capacitor is charged alone from only one of the legs for part of the time.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 11, 2017
    Publication date: June 13, 2019
    Inventors: Baoming GE, Lihua CHEN, Fan XU, Shuitao YANG
  • Configurable hybrid drive systems
    Patent number: 10320220
    Abstract: A powertrain for a vehicle includes an electric machine and a controller. The electric machine has electrically isolated windings and is coupled with an inverter. The controller may be programmed to configure respective terminals of the windings to form a Y-connection, and responsive to an electrical connection between the vehicle and a 3-phase power grid, reconfigure the respective terminals such that each is coupled to a respective phase of the 3-phase power grid.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 23, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 11, 2019
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Baoming Ge, Lihua Chen, Shuitao Yang, Yan Zhou, Fan Xu, Mohammed Khorshed Alam
  • LED lighting
    Patent number: D851805
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 18, 2019
    Assignee: SHENZHEN HNLIFE LIGHTING Technology CO., LTD
    Inventor: Lihua Chen
  • LED lighting
    Patent number: D858852
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2019
    Assignee: SHENZHEN HNLIFE LIGHTING Technology CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Lihua Chen