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:
Apr. 28, 2015
Filed:
Jul. 29, 2011
Richard Knight Hester, McKinney, TX (US);
Sairaj Vijaykumar Dhople, Champaign, IL (US);
Nagarajan Sridhar, Plano, TX (US);
Richard Knight Hester, McKinney, TX (US);
Sairaj Vijaykumar Dhople, Champaign, IL (US);
Nagarajan Sridhar, Plano, TX (US);
Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
Series strings of photovoltaic (PV) modules with integrated dc-dc microconverters that can function in buck, boost, or an intermediate bridge mode based on the load can harvest more energy than conventional central-inverter architectures, especially when the arrays are partially shaded or when the modules are mismatched. The integrated multi-mode dc-dc converter includes a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm that can track the true MPP, even when a PV module becomes partially-shaded, without scanning the entire output voltage range. The algorithm compares power levels only at a voltage that occurs when a bypass diode bypasses a portion of an associated PV module, and multiples thereof.