Patent Application
20250149963
The present invention relates to packet energy transfer (PET) transmitter and more particularly to such a PET transmitter that may be operational without requiring a receiver, load or, in some systems, a cable to be present to maintain safe operation.
Digital electric power, or digital electricity, can be characterized as any power format where electrical power is distributed in discrete, controllable units of energy. Packet energy transfer (PET) is a type of digital electric power protocol disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,068,937, 8,781,637 and international patent application PCT/US2017/016870, filed 7 Feb. 2017 (each incorporated by reference herein and together referred to as Eaves 2012).
The primary discerning factor in a digital power transmission system compared to traditional, analog power systems is that the electrical energy is separated into discrete units; and individual units of energy can be associated with analog and/or digital information that can be used for the purposes of optimizing safety, efficiency, resiliency, control or routing. Since the energy in a PET system is transferred as discrete quantities, or quanta, it can be referred to as “digital power” or “digital electricity”.
As described in Eaves 2012, a source controller and a load controller are connected by power transmission lines. The source controller of Eaves 2012 periodically isolates (disconnects) the power transmission lines from the power source and analyzes, at a minimum, the voltage characteristics present at the source controller terminals directly before and after the lines are isolated. The time period when the power lines are isolated was referred to by Eaves 2012 as the “sample period”, and the time period when the source is connected is referred to as the “transfer period”. The rate of rise and decay of the voltage on the lines before, during and after the sample period reveal if a fault condition is present on the power transmission lines. Measurable faults include, but are not limited to, short circuit, high line resistance or the presence of an individual who has improperly come in contact with the lines.
Eaves 2012 also describes digital information that may be sent between the source and load controllers over the power transmission lines to further enhance safety or provide general characteristics of the energy transfer, such as total energy or the voltage at the load controller terminals. One method for communications on the same digital power transmission lines as used for power was further described and refined in US Pat. No. 9,184,795 (Eaves Communication Patent). One application of a digital power distribution system is to safely distribute direct-current (DC) power in digital format and at elevated voltage from the source side of the system to the load side. U.S. Pat. No. 9,853,689 (Eaves Power Elements) describes the packaging of the source side components of Eaves 2012, in various configurations, into a device referred to as a digital power transmitter.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,419,436 (Eaves Receiver Patent) describes the packaging of various configurations of the load side components of Eaves 2012 into a device referred to as a digital power receiver. U.S. Pat. No. 9,893,521, “Digital Power Network Method and Apparatus”, hereafter referred to as “Lowe 2014”, introduced the concept of multiple sources of power and multiple loads connected together safely in a digital power network using Packet Energy Transfer. The concept of a power control element (PCE) was introduced in Lowe 2014as a primary component in a digital power network. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/963,582 (Mlyniec 2017) describes methods for verifying digital electricity line integrity, which includes applying a bias to the transmission line during the sample period, synchronizing the start times of respective sample periods on first and second transmission lines, among other methods. U.S. Pat. No. 10,714,930 (Weiss 2018) describes the usage of carrier wave detection to measure the impedance of a transmission line in a power-distribution system.
Further improvements in PET systems are desirable, especially as commercial demand for such systems grow.
The benefits and advantages of the present disclosure over existing systems will be readily apparent from this Summary of the Embodiments and Detailed Description of Specific Embodiments to follow. One skilled in the art will appreciate that the present teachings can be practiced with embodiments other than those summarized or disclosed below.
In one aspect the disclosure features a packet energy transfer (PET) transmitter configured to be electrically connected to an electrical source and at least one PET transmission line, the at least one PET transmission line configured to be electrically connected to a PET receiver. The PET transmitter comprising input conditioning and protection circuitry including an input configured to be electrically connected to the electrical source, an output, and at least one switch connected at the output of the input conditioning and protection circuitry. There is a front end circuit having an input connected to the at least one switch and an output configured to be connected to the at least one PET transmission line. There is a source controller electrically connected to the input conditioning and protection circuitry and the front end circuit. The source controller is configured to close the at least one switch of the input conditioning and protection circuitry to electrically connect the electrical source to the output of the front end circuit during a transfer period and the source controller is configured to open the at least one switch to electrically disconnect the electrical source from the output of the front end circuit during a sample period. There is, connected across the output of the front end circuit, a minimum effective cross-line capacitance without a PET receiver being in electrical communication with the output of the front end circuit. The minimum effective cross-line capacitance enables the source controller, during the sample period to differentiate a measured voltage at the output of the front end circuit indicative of a fault and a measured voltage at the output of the front end indicative of no fault.
In other aspects of the disclosure one or more of the following features may be included. The minimum effective cross-line capacitance may include one of a capacitance from a discrete transmitter capacitor disposed across the output of the front end circuit and a cross-line capacitance of the PET transmission line, only the cross-line capacitance of the PET transmission line, or only the capacitance from a discrete transmitter capacitor connected across the output of the front end circuit when the PET transmitter is not connected to the PET transmission line. The at least one switch may include a first pair of switches. The input conditioning and protection circuitry may further include a second pair of switches disposed between the source and the first pair of switches and the source controller may be configured to maintain the second pair of switches in a closed position during normal operating conditions and to maintain the second pair of switches in an open position in the event of a component failure. The input conditioning and protection circuitry may further include a pair of fuses disposed between the source and the second pair of switches. The input conditioning and protection circuitry may further include an earth ground balance circuit comprising a pair of balance resistors and a current limiting resistor connected between the balance resistors and earth ground. The input conditioning and protection circuitry may include a soft-start circuit to having a third pair of switches when closed by the source controller connect the source through a resistance to the minimum effective cross-line capacitance. The front end circuit may include a bias circuit connected across the output and the bias circuit may include a bias resistor and a switch in series. The front end circuit may further includes an output resistor connected across the output of the front end circuit in parallel with the discrete transmitter capacitor. The front end circuit may further include an output switch connected across the output of the front end circuit and in parallel in parallel with the discrete transmitter capacitor.
In another aspect, the disclosure features a packet energy transfer (PET) transmitter configured to be electrically connected to an electrical source and at least one PET transmission line. The at least one PET transmission line is configured to be electrically connected to a PET receiver. The PET transmitter comprises input conditioning and protection circuitry including an input configured to be electrically connected to the electrical source, an output, and at least one switch connected at the output of the input conditioning and protection circuitry. There is a front end circuit having an input connected to the pair of switches and an output configured to be connected to the at least one PET transmission line. There is a discrete transmitter capacitor connected across the output of the front end circuit and there is a source controller electrically connected to the input conditioning and protection circuitry and the front end circuit. The source controller is configured to close the at least one switch of the input conditioning and protection circuitry to electrically connect the electrical source to the output of the front end circuit during a transfer period and the source controller is configured to open the at least one switch to electrically disconnect the electrical source from the output of the front end circuit during a sample period. The discrete transmitter capacitor has a capacitance level that enables the source controller, during the sample period, to differentiate a measured voltage at the output of the front end circuit indicative of a fault and a measured voltage at the output of the front end indicative of no fault without a PET receiver being in electrical communication with the output of the front end circuit.
In further aspects of the disclosure one or more of the following features may be included. The at least one switch may include a first pair of switches. The input conditioning and protection circuitry may further include a second pair of switches disposed between the source and the first pair of switches and the source controller may be configured to maintain the second pair of switches in a closed position during normal operating conditions and to maintain the second pair of switches in an open position in the event of a component failure. The input conditioning and protection circuitry may further include a pair of fuses disposed between the source and the second pair of switches. The input conditioning and protection circuitry may further include an earth ground balance circuit comprising a pair of balance resistors and a current limiting resistor connected between the balance resistors and earth ground. The input conditioning and protection circuitry may include a soft-start circuit having a third pair of switches when closed by the source controller connect the source through a resistance to the minimum effective cross-line capacitance. The front end circuit may include a bias circuit connected across the output and the bias circuit may include a bias resistor and a switch in series. The front end circuit may further include an output resistor connected across the output of the front end circuit in parallel with the discrete transmitter capacitor. The front end circuit may further include an output switch connected across the output of the front end circuit and in parallel in parallel with the discrete transmitter capacitor.
In a further aspect of the disclosure there is a packet energy transfer (PET) method comprising electrically connecting a PET transmitter to a PET transmission line. The PET transmitter includes an input conditioning and protection circuitry including an input electrically connected to an electrical source, an output, at least one of switch connected at the output of the input conditioning and protection circuitry. There is a front end circuit having an input connected to the at least one switch and an output connected to the PET transmission line. There is a source controller electrically connected to the input conditioning and protection circuitry and the front end circuit. The method includes operating the source controller to close the at least one switch of the input conditioning and protection circuitry to electrically connect the electrical source to the at least one PET transmission line during a transfer period and operating the source controller to open the at least one switch to electrically disconnect the electrical source from the at least one PET transmission line during a sample period. The method further includes providing a minimum effective cross-line capacitance between the PET transmitter and the PET transmission line sufficient to differentiate a measured PET transmission line voltage indicative of a fault and a measured PET transmission line voltage indicative of no fault during the sample period without a PET receiver being in electrical communication with the output of the front end circuit.
In further aspects of the disclosure the following feature may be included. The step of providing a minimum effective cross-line capacitance may include providing one of a discrete transmitter capacitor disposed across the output of the front end circuit and a cross-line capacitance of the PET transmission line or only the cross-line capacitance of the PET transmission line.
In yet another aspect of the disclosure there is a packet energy transfer (PET) method comprising providing a PET transmitter that is not electrically connected to a PET transmission line. The PET transmitter includes an input conditioning and protection circuitry including an input electrically connected to an electrical source, an output, and at least one switch connected at the output of the input conditioning and protection circuitry. There is a front end circuit having an input connected to the at least one switch and an output capable of being electrically connected to the PET transmission line and a source controller electrically connected to the input conditioning and protection circuitry and the front end circuit. The method includes operating the source controller to close the at least one switch of the input conditioning and protection circuitry to electrically connect the electrical source to the front end circuit during a transfer period and operating the source controller to open the at least one switch to electrically disconnect the electrical source from the front end circuit during a sample period. The method also includes providing a discrete transmitter capacitor across the output of the front end circuit to provide the minimum effective cross-line capacitance at the output of the front end circuit. The minimum effective cross-line capacitance is sufficient to differentiate a measured voltage at the output of the front end circuit indicative of a fault and a measured voltage at the output of the front end circuit indicative of no fault during the sample period without a PET receiver connected to PET transmission line.
These and other features of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description and the accompanying figures.
The foregoing features of embodiments will be more readily understood by reference to the following detailed description, taken with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
The disclosure and the various features and advantageous details thereof are explained more fully with reference to the non-limiting embodiments and examples that are described and/or illustrated in the accompanying drawings and detailed in the following description. Various aspects of the subject matter discussed in greater detail below may be implemented in any of numerous ways, as the subject matter is not limited to any particular manner of implementation. Examples of specific implementations and applications are provided primarily for illustrative purposes.
Unless otherwise defined, used, or characterized herein, terms that are used herein (including technical and scientific terms) are to be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their accepted meaning in the context of the relevant art and are not to be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein. The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments and is not intended to be limiting of exemplary embodiments. As used herein, singular forms, such as “a” and “an,” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context indicates otherwise. Additionally, the terms “includes,” “including,” “comprises,” and “comprising” specify the presence of the stated elements or steps but does not preclude the presence or additional of one or more other elements or steps.
Throughout this disclosure, the term “impedance” used in an electrical context refers to the electrical resistance, capacitance, and inductance. Unless otherwise specified, an increase in impedance refers to an increase in resistance, a decrease in capacitance, and/or an increase in inductance. Conversely, a decrease in impedance refers to a decrease in resistance, an increase in capacitance, and/or a decrease in inductance. One or more of these base electrical properties (i.e., resistance, capacitance, inductance) may not be depicted if not significant.
This disclosure in general relates to power distribution system safety protection devices, for example, power distribution systems with electronic monitoring to detect and disconnect power in the event of an electrical fault or safety hazard, particularly where an individual has come in contact with exposed conductors. This disclosure is applicable to general power distribution and, exemplifications, to, e.g., electric vehicle charging, telecommunications and/or alternative energy power systems.
More specifically, this disclosure relates to fault-managed PET power systems for distributing power from a transmitter to one or more loads connected to receiver(s) on the same circuit without requiring a receiver, load or, in some systems, a cable to be present to maintain safe operation by monitoring the line characteristics. In addition, the disclosure relates to PET receivers with very high front-end impedance and high start-up input impedance that allow multiple receivers to be connected to a common transmission line (a “multi-drop” configuration) and a single transmitter such that they draw a limited amount of current/power that does not trip the line characterization safety detection of the transmitter.
Further, according to an aspect of this disclosure, receivers/loads may be added to a circuit at any time during operation of the circuit, which may be referred to herein as “hot pluggable” or as a “hot plug receiver”. Such a hot pluggable receiver may also have very high front-end impedance and high start-up input impedance.
A simplified diagram of a digital-power system, as originally described in Eaves 2012 and further expanded upon in Mlyniec 2017 is shown in
During sample periods, a voltage bias may or may not be applied by the transmitter. For example, as shown in
Inherent in the PET waveform is a large ΔV, or change in voltage that occurs in a short time frame during the transition between sample period and transfer period at points 11, 12, and 13,
With prior art PET systems, the PET protocol cannot begin until the transmission line and a receiver are connected to the PET transmitter, because there is not a sufficient level of cross-line capacitance in the transmitter and the transmission line to allow the PET protocol to operate properly. A prior art receiver having a discrete capacitor in its front end circuit would be connected to the transmission line to provide a sufficient amount of aggregate capacitance to run the PET protocol. However, with transmitter 14,
When switches (S2) 22 and (S7) 36 are opened, the charge stored in capacitors (C1) 27 and (Ccable) 29 and any connected receivers decays at a rate that is inversely proportional to the additive values of resistors (R5) 26 and (Rcable) 28. In this embodiment, the combination of resistors and capacitors/capacitance in the system may be referred to as the effective cross-line impedance, which is described more specifically in the following paragraph. The amount of charge contained in the effective cross-line impedance of the system is proportional to the voltage across the transmission line and can be measured at points 20 and 39 by Source Controller 16.
With transmitter 14 connected to the transmission line, even with no receivers/loads are connected to the transmission line, the presence of a cross-line fault as discussed in Eaves 2012 and Mylenic 2017, may still be determined. In this system, the effective cross-line impedance is comprised of the cross-line impedance of the transmission line (represented with resistor (Rcable) 28 and capacitor (Ccable) 29) and the cross-line impedance of the transmitter output, i.e. resistor (R5) 26 and capacitor (C1) 27. The transmitter 14 periodically isolates the power transmission lines from the source 21 and, even though there is no load or receiver connected, the transmitter 14 can still perform measurements on the power transmission line. This is accomplished by ensuring at the output of transmitter 14 there is a minimum effective cross-line capacitance to execute the PET protocol. With transmitter 14, a PET protocol can be executed even without it being connected to a transmission line, as capacitor (C1) 27 provides the required effective minimum cross-line capacitance.
Minimum effective cross-line capacitance is an amount of capacitance which still allows the differentiation between a measurement with a fault and a measurement without a fault on the system. Based on the fault resistances supported by transmitter 14, known impedances in a working system, and sensitivity of the measurement apparatus, the minimum effective cross-line capacitance can be determined. At some low capacitance value (below the minimum effective cross-line capacitance), all values measured will be zero since all energy will be drained from the capacitance. This would be the case, for example, when operating at 400 V without a cross-line fault present; with 200 k (cross-line resistance, 5 pF of cross-line capacitance, and a delay of 10 μs before the initiation of taking measurements using an ADC with a resolution of 0.1 V. With these parameters, the transmitter cannot differentiate between actual fault conditions and the conditions when no fault is present in the system. Therefore, the PET protocol cannot be operated effectively.
If there is not an effective minimum cross-line capacitance provided by the inherent transmission line capacitance, a discrete capacitor, e.g. (C1) 27, may be added to the transmitter as shown in
Transmitter 14 allows for digital electricity systems to behave in a manner similar to conventional AC or DC power distribution systems, which can be energized without a receiver or load connected. Prior art systems are designed to require a receiver to be present to initialize and execute the PET protocol. However, transmitter 14 supplies the minimum required effective cross-line capacitance for the PET protocol to operate via capacitor (C1) 27. This allows for operation without a receiver or even transmission lines connected to the transmitter output, which has several benefits, including reduced start-up time and enabling operation with hot-pluggable receivers.
It should be noted that when MOSFETs are used for switch (S2) 22 and switch (S7) 36 of the transmitter 14, the output capacitance of those switches will effectively be seen at the output of the transmitter front-end 94. This effective capacitance can fulfill the minimum capacitance requirement with properly specified parts. While this avoids the cost of a discrete capacitor C1 27 on the transmitter output or relying on sufficient transmission line length always being present, it does require a more complex algorithm since the effective capacitance provided by the MOSFET output capacitance will change as the MOSFET drain-to-source voltage changes, which will need to be factored into the evaluation of whether or not a fault is present. Switches other than MOSFETs may be used provided there is sufficient effective capacitance across the switch.
It should be further noted that systems with significantly long transmission lines may prohibit use of discrete capacitor (C1) 27 in the case the inherent capacitance approaches the maximum allowable transmission line capacitance. Above this maximum capacitance, the transmitter is no longer able to distinguish faults from normal operation and therefore must turn off its output. Transmitter 14 may include a switch (not shown) to switch discrete capacitor (C1) 27 out of the circuit when the inherent capacitance approaches the maximum allowable transmission line capacitance. The Mlyniec 2017 reference introduces the high capacitance fault and may be referred to for those specific cases.
Transmitter 14 may further include a bias circuit to help verify transmission line integrity as shown in and described with respect to
Transmitter 14 may additionally include switches (S1) 19 and (S6) 35 to provide secondary protection in the event of a single component failure in transmitter 14. Under normal operating conditions switches (S1) 19 and (S6) 35 are left closed. In the event of multiple component failures, protection is provided via fuses (F1) 18 and (F2) 38 and the failsafe switch (S5) 37, forming a crowbar circuit. There may be included a soft start circuit comprising switch (S3) 25, resistor (R1) 24, switch (S8) 41 and resistor (R7) 40 which enables current-limited soft start functionality (i.e. the transmitter soft-start process). This soft start circuit charges the capacitive portion of the effective cross-line impedance of the system and the start-up input impedance (described below) of any connected receiver(s), protecting the transmitter circuitry from the large current spike that would occur otherwise when the transmitter first applies power to the transmission lines. Additionally, current limited earth ground 30 balance is provided via balance resistors (R2) 23, (R6) 32, and current-limiting resistor (R4) 33.
In some alternative embodiments, some transmitter switches may be omitted. Instead of opening both switches (S2) 22 and (S7) 36 for the sample period, it is possible to open only one of those switches. This is not optimal as far as robust performance, but it may be sufficient in cost-sensitive applications. Similarly, instead of the soft-start circuit comprising switch (S3) 25, resistor (R1) 24, switch (S8) 41 and resistor (R7) 40, it could omit switch (S8) 41 and resistor (R7) 40 in favor of using switch (S7) 36, or omit switch (S3) 25 and resistor (R1) 24 in favor of using switch (S2) 22.
Components within box 93 may be considered the input conditioning and protection circuitry. These components add secondary protection to the system and condition the power from the source. Components within box 94 may be referred to as the PET front-end of the transmitter. These components are directly connected across the transmission line and directly measure or modify the properties of the transmission line. Switches (S2) 22, (S3) 25, (S7) 36 and (S8) 41 delineate the boundary between these two subsections of the transmitter circuitry.
Referring to
In both receivers 43 and 43a their front-end impedance is the aggregate impedance of the components of front-end circuits 55 and 55a, respectively. With receiver 43a, there is a synchronizer circuit 52, shown in
The front end impedance is the impedance that is seen by the transmitter during normal operation of receivers 43 and 43a, i.e. after the receiver start-up process. The start-up impedance is the impedance seen by the transmitter during the start-up process. The start-up process for the multi-drop receiver 43 is from the time the receiver is connected to the transmission line until transmitter soft-start process (described above) is completed. For receiver 43a, the start-up process is from the time receiver 43a is connected to the transmission line until the load controller supply is running and the synchronizer circuit is disabled. See steps 106/108 in flow chart 100,
Please note that either receiver configuration (
With respect to both receiver configurations, points 46 and 58 represent the receiver inputs, which connect to the power transmission lines. Components within box 55/55a are considered PET front-end receiver circuitry and components within box 95/95a are considered output control and conditioning circuitry. These two sections of the receiver are delineated by either diodes (D1) 80 and (D2) 81 as shown in
Components residing in the output control and conditioning circuit 95/95a perform various functions. Capacitor (C2) 60, referred to as the bootstrap capacitor, supplies capacitance just after the diodes or switches to allow the receiver to operate. For both receivers shown in
If the RC time constant formed by capacitor (C2) 60 and the effective resistance of the load controller supply 63 is less than the RC time constant of the effective transmission line impedance, then capacitor (C2) 60 may potentially discharge to a point where diodes (D1) 80 and (D2) 81 are no longer reverse biased during the sample period. In a simpler implementation, a single diode on the positive leg of the circuit may be used, e.g. just diode (D1) 80.
Also in output control and conditioning circuit 95/95a, is capacitor (C3) 54 referred to as the receiver bulk capacitance. This capacitor acts as local bulk energy storage for the load 50 when the receiver diodes/switches are reverse biased/open. This capacitor is charged during the receiver initialization sequence when the load controller 44 closes switch (S15) 64. Bulk capacitor (C3) 54 may be sized based on the maximum desired load current and maximum allowable output voltage ripple.
The peak current is limited via current limiter 57. Switch (S14) 61 bypasses the current limiter 57 allowing capacitor (C3) 54 to be directly connected across the output of the receiver. Switch (S11) 49 allows the load controller 44 to have control over when power is delivered to the load 50. During startup operations, the load controller 44 may disconnect the load 50 from the circuit. For example, before capacitor (C3) 54 is charged, it is likely that attempting to power the load 50 will cause the voltage across capacitor (C2) 60 and the load controller supply 63 to drop to a point that would cause the receiver to fully turn off during a sample period. Switch (S11) 49 allows the load controller 44 to connect the load only when capacitor (C3) 54 is fully charged.
It should be noted that current limiter 57 can be implemented in various ways. For example, in the simplest form, a resistor can be used to limit peak current draw. The value of this resistor would be chosen such that the maximum current is below a predetermined value. Another embodiment of a current limiting circuit may use a resistor with a negative temperature coefficient, or NTC. Such a circuit would initially limit current while the NTC is in a high-resistive state, then allow more current to flow as the NTC heats up and the resistance drops. Alternatively, current limiter 57 could be implemented using an active constant current circuit. Such a circuit would maintain a predetermined constant current, allowing the capacitor to reach the target voltage in a linear, rather than exponential manner. The current limiter 57 and switch (S15) 64 may be eliminated entirely if the load controller 44 implements a Pulse-Width Modulation method to control Switch (S14) 61 to limit the average and peak currents. The current limiter 57 and switch (S15) 64 may also be eliminated if the load controller 44 operates switch (S14) 61 in the resistive region to limit the current, possibly in combination with the usage of Pulse-Width Modulation.
Resistor (R8) 51 and switch (S12) 59 are a particular embodiment of a bias circuit and may be used to allow the receiver to participate in inline communications. Communication may also occur via communication link 42 over a separate copper or fiber optic connection.
Receiver 43 of
Prior art receivers also utilize a bulk capacitor, however, this capacitor is in the same position as capacitor (C2) 60 of the receiver and therefore, it contributed significantly to the receiver's start-up input capacitance. This configuration relied on the transmitter soft-start circuitry to manage charging of the capacitance within the effective transmission line impedance, as well as the bulk capacitor. With the receiver shown in
The value of the bootstrap capacitor (C2) 60 is minimized to increase receiver's start-up input impedance. The value of capacitor (C3) 54 can be determined based upon expected maximum load current and allowable output voltage ripple for a given system. The benefit to this approach is it decouples the receiver bulk capacitor (C3) 54 value from the transmitter soft start circuit, as the receiver bulk capacitor (C3) 54 no longer contributes to the receiver's start-up input impedance. This enables systems, such as the multi-drop system depicted in
Another factor of the receiver's start-up input impedance is the current/power draw of the down converter and any other non-linear loading components of the load controller supply 63 (discussed below). For at least some topologies of down converters, the current draw is such that, at lower input voltages, there is a larger input current draw in order to regulate the converter output appropriately. If the total current drawn at a given voltage by all down converters in all receivers that are connected to the same transmitter is the same as the available transmitter soft start current, the transmitter will be unable to soft start the receivers further since none of the current is being drawn into the receivers' bootstrap capacitance, preventing the voltage from rising further. In addition to the down converter, other start-up input resistances seen by the transmitter and other non-capacitive power draws will contribute to this restriction and will need to be considered. While resistive input impedances are simpler to account for by calculating the voltage divider formed by these resistances and the transmitter soft start resistance, the non-linear loading components can be more difficult to account for.
One method for addressing the non-linear draw of the down converter of the load controller supply 63 while soft starting is to include in the load controller supply 63 a current limiter on the input to the down converter. With the available transmitter soft start current defined along with the desired maximum number of receivers to be connected to that same transmitter, the amount of current limiting required can be calculated. Another method for addressing the non-linear draw of the down converter is to hold the down converter in an off or low-power state until a desired input voltage is reached. This input voltage could be defined such that, at that given voltage, the current drawn by the down converter is much lower and no longer imposes an excessive restriction on the number of receivers that can be soft started in parallel by the same transmitter. This hold-off technique could be implemented in a number of ways, including a voltage divider that controls a switch, a voltage sensor that controls a switch, and utilizing a down converter that provides such a hold-off control via its interface.
Receiver 43 input impedance may be such that it consumes only a small amount of current from the transmission lines which may be at a magnitude below the level at which the transmitter may detect a fault, with at least a minimum level of margin included. The minimum level of margin would be defined such that the transmitter does not detect a fault that is not actually present by considering in the current draw under normal conditions (i.e. the current drawn by the receivers while soft starting), the minimum level of fault sensitivity, and factors that can affect the measurement; such as tolerance of components, reasonable expected noise, and timing skew. This minimum level of margin should also consider the number of parallel receivers that are designed to be supported that may concurrently draw this magnitude of current due to their parallel configuration. The amount of acceptable current draw and minimum level of margin are device and application specific.
To meet the above impedance requirements, the start-up input impedance (which includes the front end impedance) of the multi-drop PET receiver 43 may be at least two times (2×) higher than an impedance level that would induce or indicate a fault or prevent the transmitter from successfully completing soft start on the at least one energized PET transmission line. In order to provide more margin, the start-up input impedance of the multi-drop PET receiver 43 may be greater than two times (2×) and may be up to or greater than one order of magnitude higher than an impedance level that would induce or indicate a fault or prevent the transmitter from successfully completing soft start on the at least one energized PET transmission line. An order of magnitude is used herein in its typical manner, i.e. the value of the physical quantity is expressed as a×10b; where 1≤a<10 and b is a positive or a negative integer. The exponent of 10, here it is b, is called of the order of magnitude. As an example, 1×102 is one order of magnitude greater than 1×101.
With the receiver of
The synchronizer circuit 52 allows the receiver to start up from an unpowered state. It consumes only a small amount of current from the transmission lines which is at a magnitude below the level which the transmitter may detect a fault, with at least a minimum level of margin included. This minimum level of margin would be defined such that the transmitter does not detect a fault that is not actually present by considering in the current draw under normal conditions (i.e. the current drawn by the receivers during the start-up process), the minimum level of fault sensitivity, and factors that can affect the measurement; such as tolerance of components, reasonable expected noise, and timing skew. This minimum level of margin should also consider the number of parallel receivers that are designed to be supported that may concurrently draw this magnitude of current due to their parallel configuration.
To meet the above impedance requirements, the start-up input impedance (which includes the front end impedance) of the hot pluggable PET receiver 43a may be at least two times (2×) higher than an impedance level that would induce or indicate a fault or prevent the transmitter from successfully completing soft start on the at least one energized PET transmission line. In order to provide more margin, the start-up input impedance may be greater than two times (2×) and may be up to or greater than one order of magnitude higher than an impedance level that would induce or indicate a fault on the at least one energized PET transmission line.
Once synchronized to the PET waveform (described below), the synchronizer circuit 52 allows current to flow to charge bootstrap capacitor (C2) 60 and get load controller supply 63 running to supply power to load controller 44. As described above, load controller supply 63 may include a down converter to regulate a higher input voltage down to the voltage level required by the load controller 44. This process may require a plurality of transfer and sample periods to start the load controller supply. Once the load controller supply 63 is running/operational, the load controller 44 disables the synchronizer circuit 52 and the load controller supply 63 powers load controller 44. In addition, load controller 44 begins switching the connected switches (S9) 45 and (S16) 65 during subsequent transfer and sample periods to complete the initialization operations before powering the load. This receiver with high start-up input impedance allows for hotplug capability, meaning the receiver can be connected to a running system with a transmitter and other receivers already operating without causing any interruption to power delivery or compromising safety. In other words, it does not draw an amount of current/power to cause the PET transmitter to incorrectly detect a fault.
With regard to the multi-drop PET receiver 43 (
For C2 60, with an effective cross-line resistance of at most 100 kΩ and effective cross-line capacitance of at most 100 nF seen at the receiver front-end and an effective load controller supply resistance of at least 20 kΩ, the bootstrap capacitance would need to be at least 0.5 μF. With a single receiver front-end receiving power at a duty cycle of 50% and a frequency of 1 kHz, with an effective load controller supply resistance of at least 20 kΩ, to tolerate no more than a 10V ripple, a bootstrap capacitance of at least 0.42 μF is required. Therefore, in this example, a bootstrap capacitance of at least 0.5 μF is required. Larger values can be used to further minimize ripple and provide margin, but the value should otherwise be minimized in order for operational capabilities to be optimized. A system with different parameters must recalculate these values accordingly.
For C3 54, with a load current of 5A, a single receiver front-end receiving power at a duty cycle of 50% and a frequency of 1 kHz, to tolerate no more than 10V ripple, a bulk capacitance of at least 125 μF is required. Larger values can be used to further minimize ripple and provide margin, but smaller values will optimize cost and component size as well as generally faster initialization times.
For capacitance sizing of both C2 60 and C3 54, the minimum amount of capacitance required to allow the receiver to operate must be considered and the ability for the capacitance to be recharged during each transfer period based on the series resistance of the transmission line and any other impedances that would affect the charge rate of that capacitance must also be considered.
Referring now to
These same techniques could be performed by analyzing current instead of voltage. For example, the synchronizer circuit 52 could place a small resistance across or in series with the transmission lines and measure the current flowing through the resistor. When the transmitter enters the transfer period, a high rate of change in the current flowing though the resistor could be measured.
A particular embodiment of transfer period detector 72 may consist of an ADC and microcontroller performing analysis of the voltage waveform. Said ADC and microcontroller may be implemented as part of the load controller 44 or as a separate circuit. Another embodiment may utilize comparators, discrete logic gates, and registers, and mono-stable timer circuits as a detection mechanism.
The voltage sensor 71, transfer period detector 72, and output driver 73 are powered from the synchronizer power supply 70. The steady state power draw of the supply via the primary input 69 is well below the level which could impact measurements made by the transmitter source controller. However, to run the voltage sensor 71, transfer period detector 72 and output driver 73, the synchronizer power supply 70 may need to source more energy than can be sourced directly from the transmission line via primary input 69 without causing measurement disturbances. Therefore, the secondary input 68 is connected after the bypass switch (S10) 48 within the receiver and serves as a lower impedance path to allow the synchronizer power supply 70 to maintain operation once synchronized with the transmitter.
Components within box 96 are directly connected to the PET transmission lines and are considered part of the PET front-end circuitry 55a within the receiver 43a. Components within box 97 are considered part of the receiver output control and conditioning circuitry 95a.
In step 202 of flow chart 200, the synchronizer circuit 52 consumes a small amount of power from the transmission line via the primary (high impedance) input 69, so as to not disturb measurements made by the transmitter source controller during the sample period. In step 202, it is determined if synchronizer circuit 52 is powered and if it is not, the flow returns to step 202 where more power from the transmission line is consumed by synchronizer 52. As determined at step 204, once powered, the synchronizer observes the voltage across the transmission lines, step 206, waiting to detect the high rate of change of voltage (dV/dt), which occurs as the transmitter enters the transfer period. Once a high rate of change of voltage (dV/dt) is detected at step 208, the synchronizer closes switches (S10) 48 and (S13) 62 at step 210 for a predetermined amount of time, established by delay step 212, allowing energy to flow into capacitor (C2) 60 and the load controller supplies 63. Energy is also allowed to flow into the lower impedance secondary synchronizer input 68 to keep the synchronizer powered. After the predetermined amount of time elapses, delay step 212, at step 214 switches (S10) 48 and (S13) 62 are opened by the synchronizer 52 before the start of the next sample period.
Referring back to flow chart 100,
Once the load controller 44 has taken over control of the receiver, but before powering the connected load 50, charging of bulk capacitor (C3) 54 begins at step 112 and continues until it is determined at step 114 that the bulk capacitor is fully charged. The load controller closes switch (S15) 64 and current limiter 57 limits the peak current. Voltage across bulk capacitor (C3) 54 is measured across points 53 and 56 and once the voltage across capacitor (C3) 54 reaches a predetermined threshold, the load controller closes switch (S14) 61, directly connecting bulk capacitor (C3) 54 across the output at step 116 so that bulk capacitor (C3) 54 acts as local bulk energy storage. The load controller then closes switch (S11) 49, step 118, delivering energy to the load 50. During transfer periods, this energy is directly supplied to the load 50 from the source attached to the transmitter. During sample periods, capacitor (C3) 54 supplies energy to the load 50. The load controller 44 continuously monitors for output faults, at step 120, until input power is lost.
In a receiver with a single receiver PET front-end 55/55a, as shown in
However, as shown in
The plurality of PET front-ends are connected to receiver output and conditioning and control circuit 95 via DC link 303. Communications link 302 allows for communications between receiver 300 and one or more transmitters (not shown).
Referring again to
current limiter 57; switch (S14) 61; and switch (S15) 64 can be referred to as a multi-drop capable receiver 43.
Referring again to
Depicted in
The maximum number of receivers that can be connected is primarily determined by either the PET receiver front-end impedance or the PET receiver start-up input impedance whichever is more restrictive. For example, reducing the PET receiver front-end impedance by half will approximately double the maximum number of receivers that can be connected. In another example, since the receiver start-up input impedance is inclusive of at least the bootstrap capacitance, reducing the bootstrap capacitance by half will approximately double the maximum number of receivers that can be connected. In prior art devices, there is no bootstrap capacitor (C2) and a much larger bulk capacitor (C3) is located in the front-end same position as capacitor (C2) 60. Since this bulk capacitor was generally sized to support the load connected to the output, the maximum number of receivers that could be connected to the transmission line was limited.
In such a multi-drop system 500 as shown in
The various embodiments of the disclosure described above are intended to be merely exemplary; numerous variations and modifications will be apparent to those skilled in the art. All such variations and modifications are intended to be within the scope of the present disclosure as defined in any appended claims.
