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. 12, 2018
Filed:
Aug. 25, 2015
Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (US);
Evgeny Fomin, San Carlos, CA (US);
Andrew Wang, New Taipei, TW;
TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED, Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
A ground fault detection system based on capacitive sensing suitable for use in detecting a ground fault condition in electronic equipment (such as a PCBA) with a circuit ground electrically isolated from an isolation ground (such as chassis ground). The capacitive sensing system includes a capacitive sensor capacitively coupled to the system isolation ground, and a capacitance/data converter that captures sensor capacitance measurements for conversion to sensor data representative of a ground short. In one embodiment, the capacitive sensor includes a sensor electrode capacitively coupled to the system isolation ground by one of projected capacitance and a floating capacitor (such as 33 pf), and the CDC unit further includes sensor excitation circuitry configured to drive the sensor electrode, such that a sensor capacitance (projected or floating capacitance) is representative of an electrical condition of the system isolation ground. For sensing by projected capacitance, the capacitive sensor can include a driven shield.