Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (publ)

Magnus Mellteg

Torbjörn Holmberg

Andreas Larsson

Magnus Karlsson

Daniel Nilsson

An apparatus for a power system with a power input at an upstream end and power outputs connected to loads in a downstream end, the power system comprising a plurality of devices interconnected in a tree topology. The apparatus communicatively coupled to each of the devices and configured to identify each of the devices, cause a change of an operation state or parameter of each of the devices at a time. The apparatus further configured to determine, for each of the devices having an operation state or parameter thereof changed, which of the other devices having a related change of an operation state or parameter thereof, and identify how the devices are connected in the tree topology based on said determined other devices having a related change of an operation state or parameter thereof, for each of said devices having an operation state or parameter thereof changed.

Apparatus, power system, computer program, and method

A controller () for determining a distribution of switching phases among switching elements of a power supply system The power supply system has a plurality of voltage converters, each comprising a switching element and being arranged to convert an input voltage supplied to the voltage converters to a respective output voltage by switching the switching element at a predetermined frequency. The controller () comprises a receiver () for receiving one or more signals indicative of a respective contribution from each of the voltage converters to a ripple current component of an input current of the voltage converters, and a rank determining module () configured to rank the voltage converters in order of decreasing contribution to the ripple current. The controller () further comprises a switching phase offset calculator () configured to calculate a respective switching phase offset that is to be applied for the switching element in each of the voltage converters by: (i) calculating respective phase offsets of the two highest ranked voltage converters that would minimize an input current ripple caused only by said two highest ranked voltage converters; (ii) calculating a phase offset of the next-highest ranked voltage converter that would minimize an input current ripple caused only by said next-highest ranked voltage converter and the voltage converters ranked higher than said next-highest voltage converter; and (iii) repeating step (ii) for each subsequent voltage converter in the ranking. The controller () also includes an output signal generator () configured to generate one or more output signals defining the calculated switching phase offsets to be applied to the switching of the respective switching elements.

Determination of phase offsets in a power supply system having multiple switching converters

A controller for determining switching phases among switching elements of a power supply system having voltage converters, each comprising a switching element. The controller receives signals indicative of a contribution from each converter to a ripple voltage component of an input current of the converters, and ranks the converters. The controller calculates a switching phase offset that is to be applied for the switching element by: (i) calculating phase offsets of two highest ranked converters that would minimize an input voltage ripple caused by said two highest ranked converters, (ii) calculating a phase offset of a next-highest ranked converter that would minimize an input voltage ripple caused by said next-highest ranked converter and converters ranked higher than said next-highest converter; and (iii) repeating step (ii) for each converter in the ranking. The controller generates output signals defining the calculated switching phase offsets to be applied to the switching elements.

An apparatus () for tuning a feedback loop that is arranged to regulate an output voltage (V) of a switched mode power supply, SMPS (), in accordance with a control law defined by control law parameters. The apparatus includes a natural frequency estimator () arranged to determine a respective estimate of a natural frequency of each of two zeros in a transfer function that corresponds to a model of the feedback loop. The natural frequency estimator () comprises: an output voltage deviation determining module () arranged to determine, for each of a plurality of points in a search space, wherein the coordinates of each of the points correspond to candidate values of the natural frequencies of the zeros, a deviation of the output voltage of the SMPS that occurs in response to a variation in a load current of the SMPS; and a goal function evaluation module () arranged to evaluate a goal function using the determined deviation of the output voltage of the SMPS at each of the plurality of points to obtain a measure of at least one of a size and a recovery time of the respective output voltage deviation. The natural frequency estimator () is arranged to estimate a location of a minimum of the goal function in the search space based on the evaluated values of the goal function, the location of the minimum corresponding to the natural frequencies of the zeros. The apparatus further comprises a control law parameter calculator () arranged to calculate, based on the determined estimates of the natural frequencies of the zeros, the control law parameters for tuning the feedback loop, and a feedback loop tuner () to tune the feedback loop in accordance with the calculated control law parameters.

Switched mode power supply compensation loop

Method determines a configuration of capacitors in an output filter of a switched mode power supply (SMPS). Candidate configurations are generated, each associated with a respective cost function value calculated based on number of capacitors of each kind in the candidate configuration and cost assigned to each kind of capacitor. The candidate configurations are ordered based on their cost function values. A binary search through the ordered candidate configurations determines a capacitor configuration associated with a lowest cost function value to allow a defined load transient response requirement of the SMPS. Whether a candidate configuration allows the defined load transient response requirement of the SMPS is determined using a model of a SMPS having the candidate configuration of the output filter simulating deviation of output voltage of the SMPS in response to change in load current of the SMPS and determining whether the defined load transient response requirement is allowed.

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Kalmar, Sweden

Magnus Mellteg