Circuit for providing variable waveform excitation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11063579-B2
Application number	US-201816761536-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 8, 2018
Priority date	Nov 9, 2017
Publication date	Jul 13, 2021
Grant date	Jul 13, 2021

Abstract

A circuit for testing an electronic component, such as a transformer, includes at least two power supplies and at least two H bridge circuits. A first H bridge circuit is conductively coupled in parallel to a first power supply. A second H bridge circuit is conductively coupled in parallel to a second power supply. The second H bridge circuit includes one or more anti-series diodes for preventing current from the first power supply from passing through the second H bridge circuit to the second power supply. The first H bridge circuit and the second H bridge circuit are configured to conductively couple to the electronic component for providing a voltage with a predefined waveform to the electronic component.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A circuit comprising:
a first power supply;
a second power supply;
a first H bridge circuit conductively coupled in parallel to the first power supply; and
a second H bridge circuit conductively coupled in parallel to the second power supply, the second H bridge circuit including one or more anti-series diodes for preventing current from the first power supply from passing through the second H bridge circuit to the second power supply,
wherein the first H bridge circuit and the second H bridge circuit are configured to conductively couple to an electronic component for providing a voltage with a predefined waveform to the electronic component.

2. The circuit of claim 1 , wherein the first power supply is configured to provide a higher voltage than the second power supply, the second power supply being configured for providing a low slope of current to the electronic component, wherein the predefined waveform is a flat top trapezoidal waveform or a high frequency sinusoid waveform.

3. The circuit of claim 1 , wherein the second power supply comprises a plurality of power supplies, each power supply of the plurality of power supplies being conductively coupled in parallel to an H bridge circuit that includes one or more anti-series diodes, wherein a shape of the predefined waveform is based on a number of power supplies among the plurality of power supplies or voltage levels of the power supplies among the plurality of power supplies.

4. The circuit of claim 1 , wherein the second H bridge circuit comprises:
a plurality of MOSFET transistors;
a plurality of forward-biased diodes, each forward-biased diode of the plurality of forward-biased diodes corresponding to one MOSFET transistor of the plurality of MOSFET transistors,
wherein the one or more anti-series diodes include a plurality of reverse-biased diodes, each reverse-biased diode of the plurality of reverse-biased diodes corresponding to one MOSFET transistor of the plurality of MOSFET transistors.

5. The circuit of claim 4 , wherein the plurality of MOSFET transistors is four MOSFET transistors, wherein the plurality of forward-biased diodes is four forward-biased diodes, wherein the plurality of reverse-biased diodes is four reverse-biased diodes.

6. The circuit of claim 5 , wherein two MOSFET transistors are coupled to a positive side of the second power supply, wherein the other two MOSFET transistors are coupled to a negative side of the second power supply, wherein each reverse-biased diode is coupled to a respective MOSFET transistor at an opposite side to which the respective MOSFET transistor is coupled to the second power supply.

7. The circuit of claim 4 , wherein the first H bridge circuit comprises:
a plurality of first MOSFET transistors; and
a plurality of first forward-biased diodes,
wherein the first H bridge circuit does not include any anti-series diodes.

8. The circuit of claim 7 , wherein at least two first MOSFET transistors of the plurality of first MOSFET transistors are configured to be gated on to provide voltage from the first power supply to the electronic component, wherein, while the voltage from the first power supply is provided to the electronic component, at least two MOSFET transistors of the plurality of MOSFET transistors are configured to be pre-gated on and at least two reverse-biased diodes of the plurality of the reverse-biased diodes are configured to prevent current from the first power supply from passing through the second H bridge circuit, wherein the at least two reverse-biased diodes of the plurality of the reverse-biased diodes are configured to respond to the at least two first MOSFET transistors being gated off by conducting current and allowing voltage from the second power supply to be provided to the electronic component.

9. The circuit of claim 1 , wherein the electronic component is a transformer, wherein the circuit is configured to apply two separate voltage levels from the first power supply and the second power supply while continuing to supply positive current to the transformer within a positive half cycle of the predefined waveform.

10. The circuit of claim 1 , wherein the first H bridge circuit and the second H bridge circuit are configured to be controlled using a plurality of pulse-width modulation channels.

11. A method comprising:
gating a first H bridge circuit to an on state to provide voltage from a first voltage source to an electronic component;
while voltage is being provided from the first voltage source to the electronic component, pre-gating a second H bridge circuit to the on state and preventing, by one or more anti-series diodes of the second H bridge circuit, the voltage from the first voltage source from passing through the second H bridge circuit;
gating the first H bridge circuit to an off state to stop providing voltage from the first voltage source to the electronic component; and
in response to the first H bridge circuit gating to the off state, allowing voltage from a second voltage source associated with the second H bridge circuit to be provided to the electronic component,
wherein the voltage from the first voltage source and the second voltage source is provided to the electronic component in a predefined waveform.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the first voltage source provides voltage at a higher level than the second voltage source.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the second H bridge circuit comprises:
a plurality of MOSFET transistors;
a plurality of forward-biased diodes, each forward-biased diode of the plurality of forward-biased diodes corresponding to one MOSFET transistor of the plurality of MOSFET transistors,
wherein the one or more anti-series diodes include a plurality of reverse-biased diodes, each reverse-biased diode of the plurality of reverse-biased diodes corresponding to one MOSFET transistor of the plurality of MOSFET transistors.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the predefined waveform is a flat top trapezoidal waveform or a high frequency sinusoid waveform.

15. An H bridge circuit comprising:
a plurality of MOSFET transistors configured to conductively couple to a voltage source;
a plurality of forward-biased diodes, each forward-biased diode of the plurality of forward-biased diodes corresponding to one MOSFET transistor of the plurality of MOSFET transistors; and
one or more anti-series diodes configured to prevent current from a second voltage source from passing through the H bridge circuit in providing voltage to an electronic component to be measured using a predefined waveform formed from voltage from the voltage source and the second voltage source.

16. The H bridge circuit of claim 15 , wherein the plurality of MOSFET transistors is four MOSFET transistors, wherein the plurality of forward-biased diodes is four forward-biased diodes, wherein the one or more anti-series diodes are four reverse-biased diodes.

17. The H bridge circuit of claim 16 , wherein two MOSFET transistors are coupled to a positive side of the voltage source, wherein the other two MOSFET transistors are coupled to a negative side of the voltage source, wherein each reverse-biased diode is coupled to a respective MOSFET transistor at an opposite side to which the respective MOSFET transistor is coupled to the voltage source.

18. The H bridge circuit of claim 15 , wherein at least some MOSFET transistors of the plurality of MOSFET transistors are configured to be pre-gated to an on state and the one or more anti-series diodes are configured to prevent vol

Assignees

• Univ North Carolina State

Inventors

• Beddingfield Richard B
• Bhattacharya Subhashish
• Storelli David

Classifications

• H03K4/94 Primary

  having trapezoidal shape · CPC title

• H02M7/493

  the static converters being arranged for operation in parallel · CPC title

• H02M7/483 Primary

  Converters with outputs that each can have more than two voltages levels · CPC title

• H02J1/082

  DC supplies with two or more different DC voltage levels · CPC title

• G01R31/62

  Testing of transformers · CPC title