Condor D.c. Power Supplies Inc.

Semiconductor Components Industries, LLC

Charles E Mullett

Thomas M Ingman

Jefferson W Hall

John W Beecroft

In one embodiment, a battery charger is configured to provide a normal charge current during a first time period and to supply a maintenance current after the first time period expires.

Multi-current battery charger circuit and method therefor

A power controller () forms a pass-through zone of output voltages. When the output voltage is between an upper limit and lower limit of the pass-through zone, the power controller () continuously connects the input voltage to the output to form the output voltage. When the output voltage is above the upper limit or below the lower limit of the pass-through zone, the power controller () switches the output transistors () to form the output voltage.

Method of forming a high efficiency power controller

A circuit and method provides a regulated dc&mdash;dc power conversion. Active switches, saturable core inductors, and a diode are used in a quasi-synchronous circuit. During a part of the cycle (the &ldquo;blocking interval&rdquo;) free-wheeling current is routed through free-wheeling diode while a saturable core inductor is in a high-impedance, blocking state. During other parts of the cycle an ac inverter voltage is rectified by active switching devices, preferably field effect transistors (FETs). The circuit provides regulated, low voltage outputs with low conversion losses.

Quasi-synchronous, magnetic amplifier regulated dc-dc converter

An output voltage regulation system allows independent output regulation of multi-output dc-dc switched-mode power converters. The channel resistance of MOSFET synchronous output rectifiers are controlled to obtain the voltage drop required to keep the respective output between predetermined limits concurrent with wide excursions in output load. A typical circuit has a transformer with an input winding coupled to a dc source. A transformer has at least a first and second output winding. A switched-mode regulator means samples a portion of the first output voltage and provides at least a first pulse-width modulated drive voltage having a first state and a second state to a first input semiconductor switch control terminal. The drive voltage first state turns the input semiconductor switch on and the drive voltage second state turns the input semiconductor switch off. The switched-mode regulator means is further characterized to adjust the ratio of the switch's on time to the switch's off time to control the first output voltage to remain within a predetermined range that is proportional to a precision reference voltage. A gate drive means is responsive to at least the first pulse-width modulated drive voltage for providing a first gate drive signal having a peak voltage swing to the synchronous rectifier control terminal. A control means samples a portion of the second dc output voltage and controls the peak voltage swing of the first gate drive signal to control the second output voltage to remain within a predetermined range.

Converter output regulation via channel resistance modulation of synchronous rectifiers

A multi-output, multi-directional power converter has an input bi-directional switch and at least a first output bi-directional switch, a coupled inductor having an input winding and at least one output winding. The coupled inductor input winding is connected in series with the input voltage source and an input bi-directional switch. Each coupled inductor output winding is connected in series with a corresponding output voltage source such as a capacitor and its respective output bi-directional switch. A clock circuit provides a first and second control signal. Each control signal has a first and second state. The second control signal has a state that is the complement of the first control signal. The first control signal is connected to the input bi-directional switch control terminal and the second control signal is connected to each respective output bi-directional switch control terminal. The input bi-directional switch is driven into a conductive state in response to the first control signal being in a first state and into a non-conductive state in response to the second control signal being in a second state. Each respective output bi-directional switch conduction channel is driven into a conductive state in response to the second control signal being in a first state and into a non-conductive state in response to the second control signal being in a second state. In an alternative embodiment, a resonant transition control means senses the coupled inductor input and output winding currents and the output voltage and adjusts the clock frequency to provide operation in a resonant transition mode.

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Santa Paula, CA, United States of America

Charles E Mullett