Siliconbrite Technologies, Inc.

Siliconbrite Technology, Inc.

Cameron Nathan Jackson

Baris Karagozlu

Anthony Gerard Russell

Alexander Burinskiy

An electronic protection system includes an electronic protection IC, mains power lines including a line rail and a neutral rail, a power switch, and a current sense device. A load is coupled with the mains power lines via the power switch and the current sense device. The electronic protection circuit turns off the power switch within eighty (80) milliseconds from a zero crossing in power delivered by the mains power lines when a load current is too high. A dummy DAC supplies a dummy current to prevent instability resulting from positive feedback during a change between a first state and a second state. The system may include an overcurrent detection circuit with a sense input, a comparator, a latch, and a pulse generator, configured to output a train of pulses with a low duty cycle when a current amplitude exceeds a reference value.

Electronic circuit for overcurrent protection

A load switching circuit includes a supply power availability (SPA) detector, a rail voltage detector, a swell detector, a surge detector, control logic, make and break timers, and a relay driver. The detectors detect various conditions, and generate signals in response to some detected conditions. The control logic is configured to: (1) release a relay within 300 ms after receiving a power-up signal; (2) start the make timer upon receiving a 'rail voltage present' signal and wait for a first delay time, then operate the relay; (3) start the break timer upon receiving a “swell detected” signal to wait for a second delay time, then release the relay; (4) cause a shunt switch to conduct within 10 ms after receiving a “surge detected” signal; and (5) release the relay within 10 ms after receiving a “rail fail” signal.

Load switching system and circuit

A powerline load monitor has a voltage sense input, a current sense input, a clock input and a data output. It includes first and second ADCs coupled with the voltage sense and current sense input, and coupled with a serial interface. A power manager is coupled with the clock input, the ADCs, and the serial interface. When the power manager receives a first clock, it puts the powerline load monitor in active mode and starts a first timer with a first timeout time. The first and second ADC convert a sensed voltage and a sensed current to digital values for the serial interface. When the serial interface receives a trailing edge of a clock pulse, it outputs a data bit of the digital values. When the first timer times out, the power manager puts the powerline load monitor in a standby mode to save power.

Powerline load monitor and control

A power switch controller includes a condition detector, a zero crossing detector, a retimer, and a driver. The condition detector detects a change in a sense signal towards a first or second condition. The zero crossing detector detects zero crossings in an AC powerline signal. The power switch controller drives a latching relay that connects a load to powerlines. The power switch controller activates or deactivates the latching relay based on the sensed condition, and retimes activation and deactivation pulses to align the relay contact opening and closing times to coincide with the AC powerline zero crossings, compensating for contact travel times. The activation and deactivation pulses have a duration of max 20 ms, and an amplitude of at least 110% of the maximum sustainable voltage for the relay coil(s). A power-on reset deactivates the relay, aligned with a second AC zero crossing.

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Los Gatos, CA, United States of America

Cameron Nathan Jackson