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:
Sep. 29, 1998
Filed:
Sep. 29, 1997
Raymond Warren Mackenzie, Pittsburgh, PA (US);
Eaton Corporation, Cleveland, OH (US);
Abstract
An arc fault detector having a pulse generator generating a pulse each time an arc is struck includes a limiting amplifier which limits the amplitude of the pulses to discriminate against false trips from sizable singular events such as tungsten bulb burnout and turn-on of a cold tungsten lamp controlled by a phased back dimmer. When a time attenuated accumulation of the pulses reaches a predetermined level an arc fault signal which can be used to trip the circuit breaker is generated. The pulse generator of the arc fault detector includes multiple stages of high pass filtering which produces overshoot and therefore additional pulses each time an arc is struck. As only the additional pulses associated with large amplitude arcs exceed a threshold value for inclusion in the time attenuated accumulation, compensation for the reduction in sensitivity to large amplitude arcs imposed by the limiting amplitude is provided.