Texas Instruments Corporation

California Institute of Technology

Suheng Chen

Timothy Patrick Pauletti

Amneh Mohammed Akour

Nat Maruthachalam Natarajan

Jinrong Qian

Richard K Hester

Mohammad Mehdi Mojarradi

Richard Kane Stair

Benjamin J Blalock

Sorin Cristoloveanu

Kerem Akarvardar

Mao Ye

Jayanth Rangaraju

Daniel A Mavencamp

Qiong M Li

Amir Fijany

Nikzad Toomarian

Elzbieta Kolawa

Farrokh Vatan

Wang Li

A monitoring circuit for a photovoltaic module includes a measurement conditioning circuit, a microcontroller circuit, and a transmitter circuit. The measurement conditioning circuit includes a voltage sense terminal, a voltage reference terminal, and a digital measurement data output. The microcontroller circuit includes a digital measurement data input coupled with the digital measurement data output, a modulation clock input, a measurement data stream output, and a transmit select output. The transmitter circuit includes a measurement data stream input coupled with the measurement data stream output, a modulation clock output coupled with the modulation clock input, a transmit select input coupled with the transmit select output, and positive and negative output communication terminals.

Monitoring circuit for photovoltaic module

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.

A system that can include a detector that can monitor a voltage at an input of a transistor device over a period of time and provide a signal having a value representative of a capacitance between the input and an output of the transistor device. The system can further include a driver that can have a programmable drive strength and be coupled to input of the transistor device to drive the transistor device at the input thereof. The system can further include a controller that can configure the driver based on the signal to drive the transistor device with a corresponding drive strength.

Adjusting drive strength for driving transistor device

A power supply system includes a rechargeable battery to deliver a supply current to a load and a circuit to limit a discharge current when the rechargeable battery is supplying power to the load. The power supply system may further include an integrator for integrating a discharge voltage representing the discharge current that exceeds a predetermined limit, a pulse-width-modulation (PWM) circuit for producing a control signal having a PWM duty cycle representing the discharge voltage, and a driver circuit for delivering the supply current to said load according to said control signal. In one embodiment, a digital register is used to set the battery discharging current limit, in another embodiment an analog circuit is used to set the battery discharging current limit, and in yet another embodiment or a combination of the digital register and analog circuit is used to set the battery discharging current limit.

Method for limiting battery discharging current in battery charger and discharger circuit

A method includes detecting removal or depletion of a power supply associated with a powered device. The powered device is configured to receive power from a power adapter via a narrow-voltage direct current/direct current (NVDC) charger and from the power supply. The method also includes, in response to the detection, disabling a dynamic power management function of the NVDC charger. The method further includes monitoring input current or input power provided to the powered device by the NVDC charger and determining if the input current or input power exceeds a threshold. In addition, the method includes, if the input current or input power exceeds the threshold, triggering a throttling of an operating clock frequency of the powered device. The method could also include (i) disabling a specified mode of operation and turning on a voltage regulator of the NVDC charger in response to the detection and (ii) providing over-voltage protection.

Apparatus and method for optimizing use of NVDC chargers

A differential output analog multiplier circuit utilizing four G-FETs, each source connected to a current source. The four G-FETs may be grouped into two pairs of two G-FETs each, where one pair has its drains connected to a load, and the other par has its drains connected to another load. The differential output voltage is taken at the two loads. In one embodiment, for each G-FET, the first and second junction gates are each connected together, where a first input voltage is applied to the front gates of each pair, and a second input voltage is applied to the first junction gates of each pair. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Four-gate transistor analog multiplier circuit

An universal and programmable logic gate based on G-FET technology is disclosed, leading to the design of more efficient logic circuits. A new full adder design based on the G-FET is also presented. The G-FET can also function as a unique router device offering coplanar crossing of signal paths that are isolated and perpendicular to one another. This has the potential of overcoming major limitations in VLSI design where complex interconnection schemes have become increasingly problematic.

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Knoxville, TN, United States of America

Suheng Chen