The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 09, 2026
Filed:
Aug. 19, 2020
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft, Munich, DE;
William Keith Bryant, Johnson City, TN (US);
SIEMENS AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT, Munich, DE;
Abstract
A fail-safe counter module comprises a controller including a processor and a memory and circuitry for fail-safe counting. The fail-safe counter module further comprises computer-readable safety rating support code stored in the memory which, when executed by the processor, causes the controller to provide safety rating to International Standard levels such as Safety Integrity Level (SIL) 3, Category (CAT) 4, Performance Level (PL) e. The fail-safe counter module further comprises computer-readable 'Safety Monitoring' functions code stored in the memory which, when executed by the processor, causes the controller to work with a user interface to select and configure the “Safety Monitoring” functions. The fail-safe counter module is a functional safety-rated device with an expected rating for SIL 3, CAT 4, PL e applications and is engineered to calculate position and/or speed utilizing an external quadrature encoder sensor that generates waveforms which permits counting of specific electrical pulses.