Half-bridge power supply with dynamic dead time

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11658563-B2
Application number	US-202117304149-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 15, 2021
Priority date	Jun 15, 2021
Publication date	May 23, 2023
Grant date	May 23, 2023

Abstract

A half-bridge power supply comprises: a first switch electrically connected to an energy source and to a load; a second switch electrically connected to the energy source and to the load; and circuitry electrically connected to the first and second switches and configured to provide a dynamic dead time for the half-bridge power supply based on one of the first and second switches being turned off having forward current.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A half-bridge power supply comprising:
a first switch electrically connected to an energy source and to a load;
a second switch electrically connected to the energy source and to the load;
circuitry electrically connected to the first and second switches and configured to provide a dynamic dead time for the half-bridge power supply based on one of the first and second switches being turned off having forward current; and
a controller electrically connected to the circuitry, the controller including a first processor.

2. The half-bridge power supply of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first and second switches comprises a silicon carbide MOSFET.

3. The half-bridge power supply of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first and second switches comprises an IGBT.

4. The half-bridge power supply of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first and second switches comprises a silicon MOSFET.

5. The half-bridge power supply of claim 1 , wherein the half-bridge power supply comprises an inverter.

6. The half-bridge power supply of claim 1 , wherein the circuitry comprises a logic circuit electrically connected to the controller.

7. The half-bridge power supply of claim 6 , wherein the logic circuit comprises a field-programmable gate array.

8. The half-bridge power supply of claim 1 , wherein the circuitry comprises a second processor executing software, wherein the software defines the dynamic dead time.

9. The half-bridge power supply of claim 8 , wherein the second processor is the first processor.

10. The half-bridge power supply of claim 1 , wherein the circuitry is configured to provide the dynamic dead time by controlling a pulse width modulation scheme for the first and second switches.

11. A half-bridge power supply comprising:
a first switch electrically connected to an energy source and to a load;
a second switch electrically connected to the energy source and to the load; and
circuitry electrically connected to the first and second switches and configured to provide a dynamic dead time for the half-bridge power supply based on one of the first and second switches being turned off having forward current;
wherein the circuitry is configured to obtain the dynamic dead time from a lookup table.

12. The half-bridge power supply of claim 11 , wherein the lookup table includes different dynamic dead times associated with respective voltages and currents.

13. A half-bridge power supply comprising:
a first switch electrically connected to an energy source and to a load;
a second switch electrically connected to the energy source and to the load; and
circuitry electrically connected to the first and second switches and configured to provide a dynamic dead time for the half-bridge power supply based on one of the first and second switches being turned off having forward current;
wherein the circuitry is configured to obtain the dynamic dead time using a polynomial based on at least current.

14. A half-bridge power supply comprising:
a first switch electrically connected to an energy source and to a load;
a second switch electrically connected to the energy source and to the load; and
circuitry electrically connected to the first and second switches and configured to provide a dynamic dead time for the half-bridge power supply based on one of the first and second switches being turned off having forward current;
wherein the circuitry is configured to provide a fixed dead time for the half-bridge power supply based on the one of the first and second switches being turned off having reverse current.

15. A half-bridge power supply comprising:
a first switch electrically connected to an energy source and to a load;
a second switch electrically connected to the energy source and to the load; and
means for obtaining a dynamic dead time from a lookup table and providing the dynamic dead time for the half-bridge power supply based on one of the first and second switches being turned off having forward current.

16. A system comprising:
an energy source;
a motor;
a first half-bridge, the first half-bridge comprising:
a first switch electrically connected to the energy source and to the motor;
a second switch electrically connected to the energy source and to the motor; and
first circuitry electrically connected to the first and second switches and configured to provide a dynamic dead time for the first half-bridge based on one of the first and second switches being turned off having forward current; and

a controller electrically connected to the first circuitry, the controller including a processor.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the motor includes a first phase winding, a second phase winding, and a third phase winding, wherein the first half-bridge is electrically connected to the first phase winding, the system further comprising:
a second half-bridge, the second half-bridge electrically connected to the second phase winding and comprising:
a third switch electrically connected to the energy source and to the motor;
a fourth switch electrically connected to the energy source and to the motor; and
second circuitry electrically connected to the third and fourth switches and configured to provide a dynamic dead time for the second half-bridge based on one of the third and fourth switches being turned off having forward current; and

a third half-bridge, the third half-bridge electrically connected to the third phase winding and comprising:
a fifth switch electrically connected to the energy source and to the motor;
a sixth switch electrically connected to the energy source and to the motor; and
third circuitry electrically connected to the fifth and sixth switches and configured to provide a dynamic dead time for the third half-bridge based on one of the fifth and sixth switches being turned off having forward current.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the first, second, and third circuitries are included in a common logic circuit.

19. The system of claim 17 , wherein the first, second, and third circuitries are formed by the processor by executing software.

Assignees

• Atieva Inc

Inventors

• Biskup Richard J
• Shen Miaosen

Classifications

• H02M1/0058

  by employing soft switching techniques, i.e. commutation of transistors when applied voltage is zero or when current flow is zero (using an auxiliary actively switched resonant commutation circuit connected to an intermediate DC voltage or between two push-pull branches of an inverter bridge H02M7/4811; in resonant inverters H02M7/4815; in inverters operating from a resonant DC source H02M7/4826) · CPC title

• H02P27/08

  with pulse width modulation · CPC title

• H02M1/38 Primary

  Means for preventing simultaneous conduction of switches · CPC title

• Y02B70/10

  Technologies improving the efficiency by using switched-mode power supplies [SMPS], i.e. efficient power electronics conversion e.g. power factor correction or reduction of losses in power supplies or efficient standby modes · CPC title

• H02M7/53871

  with automatic control of output voltage or current · CPC title