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:
Feb. 18, 2003
Filed:
Aug. 20, 2001
Joseph R. Burns, late of Princeton, NJ (US);
George W. Taylor, Princeton, NJ (US);
Thomas R. Welsh, Princeton, NJ (US);
Ocean Power Technologies, Inc., Pennington, NJ (US);
Abstract
Systems and circuits embodying the invention include means for sensing at least one of the peaks, amplitude and frequency of an oscillatory input force impinging on a power generating device for controlling the turn-on of a switch used to transfer energy collected by the power generating device to an associated load. The power generator may be a transducer such as a piezoelectric device or a wave energy converter (WEC). Sensors and sensing means embodying the invention are used to control the point in time at which power extracting circuits are switched in circuit with the power generating device. The power extracting circuit may include components which can resonate with the power generating circuit at a higher frequency than, and independent of, the frequency at which the power generating device is being operated. Thus, an electric power generator device operated and controlled by a slowly changing source of energy (e.g., ocean waves, wind, eddies of water) may develop energy at one frequency and may be operated to transfer the energy, at a selected point in time, at another frequency.