Power processor

#1. Field of the Invention

#The present invention generally relates to electrical power supplies and, more particularly, to compact uninterruptible power supplies particularly useful in complex mobile systems such as aircraft and water-borne vessels.

#2. Description of the Prior Art

#The foregoing and other objects, aspects and advantages will be better understood from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention with reference to the drawings, in which:

#FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a preferred packaging of a power processor in accordance with the invention,

#FIG. 2 is a high-level block diagram of the architecture of the power processor architecture invention,

#Referring now to the drawings, and more particularly to FIG. 1, there is shown, in perspective view, a preferred physical form of the power processor 10 in accordance with the invention. This embodiment of the invention is intended to have a nominal power supply capacity of 6.0 KiloWatts (kW) and a maximum power supply capacity of 9.0 kW at a DC output voltage of one hundred fifty volts. Preferably, in view of the projected applications of the invention in mobile machines, the power processor is packaged in hardware suitable for standard rack mounting which advantageously provides for convenient and standardized cooling arrangements as will be discussed in greater detail below. However, neither the packaging nor the details of the cooling arrangement is critical to the successful practice of the invention. Electrical connections such as output connections 17, module input power via 19 or connections on the rear of the housing 12 can be made at either the front or back side of the power processor 10 as may be convenient.

#As shown in FIG. 1, the basic housing 12 is provided with brackets 14 and mounting holes 16 which are adapted to be securely attached to vertical portions of a standard rack mount. As is familiar to those skilled in the art, standard rack mounts have vertical portions with threaded holes which are supported at a horizontal spacing of either nineteen inches or twenty-four inches. The threaded holes are spaced on three-quarter inch centers along the vertical portions and housings 12 or panels are sized in multiples of standard rack units (U) of approximately one and three-quarters inches. In the embodiment shown, housing 12 preferably has a height of 6.96 inches or 4U. The housing is also arranged to hold nine AC/DC converter modules 15 and an additional module 18 which will be described in greater detail below. Therefore, it can be seen that the invention provides a very compact and dense installation of the converter modules 15 each of which preferably has a power supply capacity of one kW. This compact and dense configuration allows more processors and other equipment to be provided with the power processor in accordance with the invention in a given amount of rack space.

#Since nine converter modules 15 are provided and the rated maximum power is 6.0 kW, the maximum rated power can be delivered even if several of the converter modules 15 become inoperative. (The modules may be individually controlled by switches 11 if less power is required.) Conversely, with all converter modules operating, peak loads 150% of maximum rated power can be accommodated. This type of additional capacity and redundancy provides a highly reliable power source and is sometimes referred to as “sparing” (in the sense of effectively providing spare modules) or “N+1 redundancy” and, upon failure of one or more modules, provides reliable continued operation sometimes referred to as “graceful degradation” with the load being smoothly and evenly redistributed among converter modules and across input power phases without the need for any control such as by a computer or adaptive circuitry that would effectively further reduce efficiency and consume space. The power processor in accordance with the invention may be regarded as being entirely analog in operation and supplies power as required without any need for condition responsive control.