Tesla Motors, Inc.

Google Inc.

Warwick Ka Kui Wong

Kristoffer John Donhowe

Troy Adam Nergaard

Christopher Hugo Van Dyke

Martin Sukup

Alexander Wroblewski

Tsung-Dar Cheng

Liang Ching Tseng

WeiFeng Pan

Jingyu Huang

Llang Ching Tseng

Alexander P Wroblewski

Weifeng Pan

The present document describes a camera module with electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection. In particular, the camera module includes a lightning rod structure, which guides an ESD current to a safe location (e.g., system ground) when a lens retainer of the camera module is hit by an ESD spark. Due to the impact on camera focus tuning and the risk of audio rub and buzz, the lightning rod structure does not physically touch the lens retainer. As such, a gap separates the lightning rod structure from the lens retainer. When the lens retainer is stressed by an ESD spark, the gap is broken down and a conductive path is established to guide the ESD current to the safe location through the lightning rod structure. In this way, the ESD current flows along a controlled path instead of jumping to arbitrary locations, which protects nearby susceptible circuitry.

Camera module with electrostatic discharge protection

A battery charging station is provided that includes a plurality of charge ports, a plurality of power stages where each power stage includes an AC to DC converter and where each power stage provides a portion of the charging station's maximum available charging power, a switching system that is used to couple the output of the power stages to the charging ports, a system monitor that determines current charging station and vehicle conditions, and a controller that controls operation of the switching system in accordance with a predefined set of power distribution rules and on the basis of the current charging station and vehicle conditions. Current charging station and vehicle conditions may include vehicle arrival time, usage fees, vehicle and/or customer priority information, battery pack SOC, and/or intended departure time.

Multiport vehicle DC charging system with variable power distribution according to power distribution rules

A method of distributing charging power among a plurality of charge ports of a battery charging station is provided, where the battery charging station includes a plurality of power stages where each power stage includes an AC to DC converter and provides a portion of the charging station's maximum available charging power, the method comprising the steps of (i) monitoring battery charging station conditions and operating conditions for each charging port; (ii) determining current battery charging station conditions, including current operating conditions for each charging port; (iii) determining power distribution for the battery charging station and the charging ports in response to the current battery charging conditions and in accordance with a predefined set of power distribution rules; and (iv) coupling the power stages to the charging ports in accordance with the power distribution.

Method of operating a multiport vehicle charging system

Growing community of inventors

Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

Warwick Ka Kui Wong