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. 10, 2008
Filed:
Jul. 14, 2005
Keith D Ness, Winona, MN (US);
Keith D Ness, Winona, MN (US);
Wetlow Electric Manufacturing Group, St. Louis, MO (US);
Abstract
An arc suppression circuit for a power switch or power supply with a relay having a coil and a set of contacts for providing a portion of an input power as load power to an output. The relay coil is configured for closing the relay contacts in response to receiving relay activating energy and for generating back EMF energy following termination of the receiving of the relay activating energy. A switch is connected in parallel to the relay contacts and is configured for providing a portion of the input power as supplemental load power to the output as a function of back EMF energy. Also, a method of suppressing damaging arcing across relay contacts in a power switch or power supply includes receiving back EMF energy generated by the relay coil following termination of the relay coil receiving activating energy and connecting supplemental load power to the output in parallel with the relay contacts in response to the receiving of the back EMF energy.