Patent Application
20130187469
The present invention is generally related to uninterrupted power provision, and more particular to an uninterrupted power supply module having redundant and hot pluggable power supplies.
A server computer is usually equipped with two or more power supplies so as to keep the server running in case one of the power supplies fails. However, when there is a black out, an uninterrupted power supply (UPS) system is required to maintain the operation of the server. Yet, a high-power UPS system is costly and consumes a lot of space. The battery in the UPS system is short-lived and also constantly requires maintenance.
Therefore, a redundant power supply UPS module for an electronic system is provided herein for obviating the foregoing shortcomings.
A major objective of the present invention is to provide an UPS module having redundant and hot pluggable power supplies.
A second objective of the present invention is to provide a structurally simple, low-cost, and low-volume redundant power supply UPS module.
Yet another objective of the present invention is to provide a long-lived and highly reliable redundant power supply UPS module.
To achieve the objectives, the redundant power supply UPS module contains at least a first power supply electrically connected to an external AC power source and converting the AC electricity from the AC power source to a DC electricity for powering the electronic system; at least a second power supply; a battery electrically connected to the second power supply for providing a DC electricity to the second power supply; and a control module electrically connected to the first and second power supplies and capable of detecting the stored electricity of the battery and power interruption from the AC power source, and capable of controlling the charge and discharge of the battery.
Preferably, the DC electricity from the first power supply is adapted and charged to the battery.
Preferably, the battery is a Lithium battery.
Preferably, the first power supply is hot pluggable, meaning that the operation of the UPS module is not affected when the first power supply is unplugged.
Preferably, the first power supply is hot pluggable.
Preferably, the control module is capable of detecting whether the power supplies are plugged or unplugged.
The foregoing objectives and summary provide only a brief introduction to the present invention. To fully appreciate these and other objects of the present invention as well as the invention itself, all of which will become apparent to those skilled in the art, the following detailed description of the invention and the claims should be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Throughout the specification and drawings identical reference numerals refer to identical or similar parts.
Many other advantages and features of the present invention will become manifest to those versed in the art upon making reference to the detailed description and the accompanying sheets of drawings in which a preferred structural embodiment incorporating the principles of the present invention is shown by way of illustrative example.
The following descriptions are exemplary embodiments only, and are not intended to limit the scope, applicability or configuration of the invention in any way. Rather, the following description provides a convenient illustration for implementing exemplary embodiments of the invention. Various changes to the described embodiments may be made in the function and arrangement of the elements described without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.
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The advantages of the present invention are as follows.
Firstly, the present invention uses the battery 13 as the backup power source which is charged by the DC electricity from the power supplies. There is no additional AC-DC conversion circuit. The design is simpler and consumes less space compared to the prior art.
Secondly, the present invention is capable of detecting black out and supports hot plugging redundancy. When there is a black out or the first power supply 11 breaks down or unplugged, the battery 13 takes over in time to continuously provide electricity to the electronic system 20 so that there is still time to conduct file saving or data backup on the electronic system 20.
Thirdly, as the present invention consumes less space, it can be housed in an ordinary power supply enclosure. It therefore can be used to replace one or both of the two ordinary power supplies of a conventional server computer.
Fourthly, the battery 13 can be a Lithium battery for a longer operational life.
While certain novel features of this invention have been shown and described and are pointed out in the annexed claim, it is not intended to be limited to the details above, since it will be understood that various omissions, modifications, substitutions and changes in the forms and details of the device illustrated and in its operation can be made by those skilled in the art without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.
