System for controlling inrush current between a power source and a load

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10833502-B2
Application number	US-201815875906-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 19, 2018
Priority date	Jan 19, 2018
Publication date	Nov 10, 2020
Grant date	Nov 10, 2020

Abstract

A system for controlling inrush current between a power source and a load includes an output capacitor coupled in parallel with the load, and a transistor having a gate, a collector configured to be coupled to the power source, and an emitter configured to be coupled to the load. The system also includes a supply resistor configured to be electrically coupled between the power source and the load and to provide a resistor charging current from the power source to the output capacitor to charge the output capacitor in response to initial power being provided by the power source. The system also includes a gate resistor having a first terminal coupled to the gate of the transistor to cause the transistor to operate in a linear mode in response to the initial power being provided by the power source to increase a speed of charging the output capacitor.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for controlling inrush current between a power source and a load, comprising:
an output capacitor coupled in parallel with the load;
a transistor having a gate, a collector configured to be coupled to the power source, and an emitter configured to be coupled to the load;
a supply resistor having a first supply terminal directly electrically coupled to the collector of the transistor and a second supply terminal directly electrically coupled to the emitter of the transistor, the supply resistor being configured to provide a resistor charging current from the power source to the output capacitor to charge the output capacitor in response to initial power being provided by the power source;
a gate resistor having a first terminal coupled to the gate of the transistor to facilitate operating the transistor in a linear mode;
a current sensor configured to detect electrical current data corresponding to electrical current flowing from the power source; and
a controller coupled to the gate of the transistor and the current sensor and configured to:
identify the initial power being provided by the power source based on the detected electrical current data,
cause the transistor to operate in a linear mode in response to the initial power being provided by the power source to increase a speed of charging the output capacitor,
identify a turn-on condition in response to determining that the load at least one of will be or is turning on, and
control the transistor to operate in an on mode to allow a driving current to flow through the transistor to power the load in response to identifying the turn-on condition.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the gate resistor has a second terminal coupled to the controller, and wherein the controller is further configured to control the transistor to operate in the on mode by applying an on mode voltage to the gate of the transistor via the gate resistor.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
identify a rapid charging condition in response to determining that rapid charging of the output capacitor is desirable; and
control the transistor to operate in the linear mode by applying a linear mode voltage to the gate of the transistor via the gate resistor in response to identifying the rapid charging condition, the linear mode voltage being different than the on mode voltage.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
identify a slow charging condition in response to determining that slow charging of the output capacitor is desirable; and
control the transistor to operate in an off mode to reduce the likelihood of any current flowing from the power source through the transistor to the output capacitor in response to identifying the slow charging condition.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
identify a turn-off condition in response to determining that the load at least one of will be or is turning off; and
control the transistor to operate in an off mode or the linear mode to reduce the likelihood of the driving current flowing through the transistor to power the load in response to identifying the turn-off condition.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the transistor is an insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT).

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the supply resistor has a resistance value between 1 Kilo ohm and 1 Mega ohm.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the output capacitor is a direct current (DC) link capacitor.

9. A system for controlling inrush current between a power source and a load, comprising:
an output capacitor coupled in parallel with the load;
a transistor having a gate, a collector configured to be coupled to the power source, and an emitter configured to be coupled to the load;
a supply resistor having a first supply terminal directly electrically coupled to the collector of the transistor and a second supply terminal directly electrically coupled to the emitter of the transistor, the supply resistor being configured to provide a resistor charging current from the power source to the output capacitor to charge the output capacitor in response to initial power being provided by the power source;
a gate resistor having a first terminal coupled to the gate of the transistor;
a current sensor configured to detect electrical current data corresponding to electrical current flowing from the power source; and
a controller coupled to the transistor and the current sensor and configured to:
identify the initial power being provided by the power source based on the detected electrical current data,
identify a rapid charging condition in response to determining that rapid charging of the output capacitor is desirable; and
control the transistor to operate in a linear mode in response identifying the rapid charging condition and in response to the initial power being provided by the power source to increase a speed of charging the output capacitor.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the gate resistor has a second terminal coupled to the controller, and the controller is further configured to control the transistor to operate in the linear mode by applying a linear mode voltage to the gate of the transistor via the gate resistor.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the controller is further configured to:
identify a turn-on condition in response to determining that the load at least one of will be or is turning on; and
control the transistor to operate in an on mode to allow a driving current to flow through the transistor to power the load in response to identifying the turn-on condition.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the controller is further configured to:
identify a turn-off condition in response to determining that the load at least one of will be or is turning off; and
control the transistor to operate in an off mode or the linear mode to reduce the likelihood of the driving current flowing through the transistor to power the load in response to identifying the turn-off condition.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein the gate resistor has a second terminal coupled to the controller, and the controller is further configured to control the transistor to operate in the on mode by applying an on mode voltage to the gate of the transistor via the gate resistor.

14. The system of claim 9 wherein the controller is further configured to:
identify a slow charging condition in response to determining that slow charging of the output capacitor is desirable; and
control the transistor to operate in an off mode to reduce the likelihood of any current flowing from the power source through the transistor to the output capacitor in response to identifying the slow charging condition.

15. A method for controlling inrush current between a power source and a load, the method comprising:
detecting, by a current sensor, electrical current data corresponding to electrical current flowing from the power source;
identifying, by a controller, initial power being provided by the power source based on the electrical current data;
identifying, by the controller, a rapid charging condition in response to determining that rapid charging of an output capacitor coupled to the load is desirable;
controlling, by the controller, a transistor coupled between the power source and the load to operate in a linear mode to provide a transistor charging current from the power source to the output capacitor in response to at least one of the initial power being provided by the power source or a combination of the initial power bei

Assignees

• Hamilton Sundstrand Corp

Inventors

• Feng Frank Z
• Bax Randall
• Schmid Ryan W
• Chai Huazhen (Harry)

Classifications

• H03K17/08128

  in composite switches · CPC title

• H03K2217/0054

  Gating switches, e.g. pass gates · CPC title

• H03K17/567

  Circuits characterised by the use of more than one type of semiconductor device, e.g. BIMOS, composite devices such as IGBT · CPC title

• H02H9/025

  Current limitation using field effect transistors · CPC title

• H02H1/043

  to inrush currents (H02H1/046 takes precedence; differential protection of transformers H02H7/045) · CPC title