Texas Instruments Corporation

Amneh Mohammed Akour

Timothy Patrick Pauletti

Nikolaus Klemmer

Abhijit Anant Patki

Suheng Chen

Nat Maruthachalam Natarajan

Tarkesh Pande

Richard K Hester

Jayanth Rangaraju

A controller circuit for a PV sub-module includes a power harvest controller circuit, a voltage limit controller circuit, a power mode control circuit, a multiplexer circuit, and a switching converter circuit. The power harvest controller circuit, including a first PV voltage input, a ceiling reference input, a floor reference input, and a first gate control output. The voltage limit controller circuit, including a first output voltage feedback input, a pulse width reference input, and a second gate control output. The power mode control circuit, including a second output voltage feedback input, a mode reference input, and a mode selection output. The multiplexer circuit, including a first gate control input, a second gate control input, a mode selection input, and a third gate control output. The switching converter circuit, including a second PV voltage input, a third gate control input, and a DC voltage output.

Controller circuit for photovoltaic sub-module

A controller circuit for a PV module includes a receiver circuit and a mode control and power conversion circuit. The receiver circuit receives a first signal from a transmitter circuit and changes a second signal from a first state to a second state responsive to the first signal. The mode control and power conversion circuit receives a DC voltage from a string of PV cells, receives the second signal from the receiver circuit, switches from a first mode to a second mode in response to the second signal being in the second state, converts the DC string voltage to a standby voltage in the second mode, and provides the standby voltage to DC power lines. The standby voltage is less than an operating voltage provided by the mode control and power conversion circuit in the first mode.

Controller circuit for photovoltaic module

A controller circuit for a PV module includes a receiver circuit and a mode control and power conversion circuit. The receiver circuit receives a first signal from a transmitter circuit associated with the PV module. The receiver circuit changes a second signal from a first state to a second state based the first signal. The mode control and power conversion circuit receives a DC string voltage from a string of PV cells associated with the PV module, receives the second signal from the receiver circuit, switches from a first mode to a second mode in response to the second signal being changed to the second state, converts the DC string voltage to a standby voltage in the second mode, and provides the standby voltage to DC power lines between the PV module and a DC-to-AC inverter in the second mode.

An integrated circuit includes a bit slicing circuit with a processing circuit. The processing circuit receives discrete frequency power estimates based on an S-FSK waveform received by an S-FSK receiver associated with the bit slicing circuit. The discrete frequency power estimates are representative of digital logic levels in a series of data frames modulated using S-FSK to form the S-FSK waveform. Each data frame including at least one word. Each word includes bit periods. The processing circuit receives SNR parameters that represent a dynamic SNR for the respective discrete frequency power estimates in relation to the series of data frames. The processing circuit selects a bit slicing technique from a set of available bit slicing techniques to generate data bit values for bit periods of the discrete frequency power estimates based on the SNR parameters. A method for performing bit slicing in an S-FSK receiver is also disclosed.

Bit slicer circuit for S-FSK receiver, integrated circuit, and method associated therewith

A threshold computation circuit includes an input circuit, a maximum filter circuit, a minimum filter circuit, and a calculating circuit. The input circuit receives a discrete frequency signal from a digital filtering circuit. The discrete frequency signal is based on an S-FSK waveform received by an S-FSK receiver associated with the digital filtering circuit. The discrete frequency signal is representative of digital logic levels in a series of data frames modulated using S-FSK to form the S-FSK waveform. The maximum filter circuit adjusts a maximum amplitude parameter based on the discrete frequency signal and a predetermined threshold. The minimum filter circuit adjusts a minimum amplitude parameter based on the discrete frequency signal and the predetermined threshold. The calculating circuit adapts the predetermined threshold for a next data frame based on the maximum and minimum amplitude parameters. An integrated circuit and a method for computing the threshold are also disclosed.

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Plano, TX, United States of America

Amneh Mohammed Akour