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:
Nov. 09, 2004
Filed:
Apr. 17, 2002
Jeffrey David McCallum, Cayucos, CA (US);
Rantec Power Systems Inc., Los Osos, CA (US);
Abstract
The present invention is directed to a circuit for reversing the polarity of a high voltage power supply. Circuits according to embodiments of the invention may include four switches, one or more of which may be solid-state switches. The solid-state switches may include a transistor stack that is supplied a biasing voltage in response to the receipt or removal of a control signal. When the biasing voltage is supplied to one transistor in the stack to change it to the closed or “ON” state, the other transistors in the stack may also be changed to the closed state in a cascading process. The control signal may be a low voltage signal and may be isolated from the solid-state switch by a control switch, which may be an optocoupler. The four switches may be connected so that two switches selectively connects a first input terminal from the high voltage source to the first and second output terminals, while two other switches selectively connect the second input terminal from the high voltage source to the first and second output terminals. Accordingly, by switching one pair of switches or the other pair of switches to the closed position, the polarity of the high voltage source may be inverted at the output terminals.