Infineon Technologies Austria Ag

Alpha and Omega Semiconductor (cayman) Ltd.

Infineon Technologies Ag

Infineon Technologies Americas Corp.

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Inc.

Amir Babazadeh

Benjamim Tang

Tim Ng

Kenneth A Ostrom

Scott Wilson Southwell

Richard Pierson

Darryl Tschirhart

Giuseppe Bernacchia

Jinghong Guo

Brian Molloy

Yi-Yuan Liu

Robert T Carroll

Chris M Young

Nick Steffen

Venkat Sreenivas

Danny Clavette

Christian Rainer

Jens A Ejury

Zhiqing You

David Williams

Siavash Sadeghi

Rakesh Renganathan

Demetri Giannopoulos

Andrea La Mendola

Tim M Ng

A magnetic levitation train system with an asymmetrical power distribution is provided, having a train which is moved through a track that is at least partly located within an airless tube, the track having at least two stations, having each section of the track between two correlative stations the following zones:

Magnetic levitation train system with an asymmetrical power distribution

A capacitor is discharged to a point where ring back in an output voltage across the capacitor is eliminated in response a transient event to high side and low side switching devices conductively coupled to an inductor and the capacitor before turning on the high side switch and varying an output voltage with a change in a load current.

Fast transient response in DC-to-DC converters

Apparatus and associated methods relate to providing an integrated circuit package having (a) a bypass circuit in parallel with an inductor and (b) a logic circuit configured to control the bypass circuit for conductivity modulation. In an illustrative example, in response to a corresponding load transient, the logic circuit may include a state machine configured to generate different control signals for the bypass circuit to control the timing and/or quantity of energy transfer from the inductor to a load. The bypass circuit may include a first semiconductor switch and a second semiconductor switch connected in anti-series. In some implementations, the power stage and the bypass circuit may be operated, for example, in numerous operational modes to dynamically modulate conductivity across the terminals of the inductor in a power supply to advantageously result in a smaller undershoot and overshoot.

Methods and apparatuses for auxiliary transient control system

According to an embodiment, a multiphase regulator includes a plurality of output phases each of which is operable to deliver a phase current through a separate inductor to a load connected to the output phases via the inductors and an output capacitor. A controller is operable to regulate a voltage delivered to the load by adjusting the phase currents delivered to the load by the output phases, monitor the phase currents delivered to the load by the output phases, test the output phases in a predetermined sequence, and determine if the phase currents respond in a predetermined way.

Multiphase regulator with phase current testing using ramp current patterns

A computer program product and DC-to-DC converter comprising, an electronic switching device, an inductor coupled to the electronic switching device, a capacitor coupled to the inductor wherein the inductor and capacitor are chosen such that the resistance of the load line is greater than a gain minus the equivalent series resistance. A transient controller is communicatively coupled to the electronic switching device, wherein the transient controller has adaptive voltage positioning and wherein the transient controller sends a signal configured to initiate discharging the capacitor during a transient event.

A resonant or semi-resonant DC/DC converter makes use of one or more synchronous rectification (SR) switches for rectifying an output current that is provided to a load of the converter. The SR switches are ideally turned off when zero current is flowing through them. To achieve such zero-current switching, the current through each of the SR switches is monitored and compared against a turn-off threshold. The turn-off threshold for a particular SR switch is determined from the slope of a waveform of the current together with a transition delay for turning off the SR switch. This transition delay typically includes a delay through a driver circuit for the SR switch together with a latency through the SR switch itself. Once it is detected that the current for an SR switch has dropped to or below the turn-off threshold, a signal is provided to the SR switch turning it off.

Adaptive synchronous rectifier timing for resonant DC/DC converters

A switched-capacitor converter includes a rectifier at the output, a plurality of legs coupled between the input and the rectifier, and a controller. Each leg of the switched-capacitor converter includes a capacitor, and a switch device is connected to each leg. A first group of the legs is coupled to a first branch of the rectifier, and a second group of the legs is coupled to a second branch of the rectifier. The controller alternates switching of the first and second groups of legs after startup, to transfer energy from the input to the output during a first part of each switching cycle via the first group of legs and to ground during a second part of each switching cycle via the second group of legs. The controller or a current limited source provides for pre-charging of at least one of the capacitors during startup.

Switched-capacitor converters with capacitor pre-charging

A method of controlling an isolated DC-DC converter includes switching the primary side switching devices of the converter at a fixed first switching period and variable duty cycle during non-transient load conditions so as to transfer energy across the transformer of the converter during first energy transfer intervals separated by energy circulation intervals, such that the ratio of each first energy transfer interval to the first switching period is less than unity. The method also includes switching the primary side switching devices at a second switching period different than the first switching period during a transient load condition so as to transfer energy across the transformer during second energy transfer intervals of a duration determined so as to avoid saturation of the transformer core, and such that any energy circulation interval separating the second energy transfer intervals is shorter than the energy circulation intervals separating the first energy transfer intervals.

Flux limited fast transient response in isolated DC-DC converters

Apparatus and associated methods relate to modulating the frequency of a switch signal to achieve a fast transient response while holding the average frequency constant over a predetermined number of N cycles. In an illustrative example, a quantum charge modulator may include a compensation processor configured to compensate an error signal and generate a compensation signal by performing operations to maintain an average switching frequency over the N cycles in response to the transient. The compensation signal may be a function of a real phase deviation &#x394;Tbetween a stable pulse modulated signal having a cycle period Tbefore the transient and a measured pulse modulated signal having a cycle period Tafter the transient. A forgetting factor may be used to calculate the phase deviations. The quantum charge modulator may provide a compensation free, stable, and high performance response over power stage component changes.

Methods and apparatuses for stable control in power converters

Some apparatus and associated methods relate to a three quarter bridge (TQB) applied across an output inductor of a buck-derived power converter, the TQB operated in a first mode such that when a high-side switch of the power converter is turned on, the TQB configured to pass a first controlled current to combine with a first output inductor current to a load, the TQB configured to control the first controlled current to minimize a negative voltage transient on the load, the TQB operated in a second mode such that when the high-side switch of the power converter is turned off the TQB configured to divert a second controlled current away from the load and to circulate the second controlled current through the output inductor, the TQB configured to control the second controlled current to minimize a positive voltage transient on the output of the power converter.

Three quarter bridge for buck-derived switch-mode power supplies

An isolated power converter includes primary side switch devices coupled to secondary side rectifying devices by a transformer and a controller. Responsive to a transient load condition, the controller switches the primary side switch devices at an initial switching period having a positive half cycle and a negative half cycle to transfer energy across the transformer during the positive half cycle and the negative half cycle. The positive half cycle and the negative half cycle of the initial switching period have the same initial duration. The controller is further operable to symmetrically reduce the duration of the positive half cycle and the negative half cycle for at least one subsequent switching period during the transient load condition.

Control of isolated power converters during transient load conditions

A method of controlling a voltage regulator includes regulating a voltage output by the voltage regulator to correspond to a target voltage, generating a voltage ramp that starts at a first voltage and ends at a second voltage and responsive to the voltage ramp, modifying the output voltage response of the voltage regulator based on one or more compensation parameters.

Dynamic voltage transition control methods for switched mode power converters

Multiphase regulator with phase current testing

According to an embodiment, a multiphase regulator includes a plurality of output phases each of which is operable to deliver a phase current through a separate inductor to a load connected to the output phases via the inductors and an output capacitor. A controller is operable to regulate a voltage delivered to the load by adjusting the phase currents delivered to the load by the output phases, monitor the phase currents delivered to the load by the output phases, determine if the monitored phase currents indicate any of the individual output phases, any of the individual inductors or the output capacitor are faulty even if the total current delivered to the load is within specified limits, synchronously switch the output phases which cause ripples in the phase currents, and detect if any of the phase currents fail to have a ripple current pattern that matches an expected ripple current pattern.

Multiphase regulator with current pattern matching

A voltage regulation system for providing power to a load is provided. The voltage regulation system includes a voltage regulator operable to: set an operating voltage of the load at a first voltage level which corresponds to a first voltage requirement of the load; receive a second voltage requirement of the load which is different than the first voltage requirement; produce a voltage ramp signal which transitions from the first voltage level to a second voltage level which corresponds to the second voltage requirement at a defined ramp rate; and ramp the operating voltage from the first voltage level to the second voltage level based on the voltage ramp signal and at the same ramp rate as the voltage ramp signal, but with a lag between the voltage ramp signal and the ramp in the operating voltage.

Growing community of inventors

Laguna Hills, CA, United States of America

Amir Babazadeh