Soft power-up for an external power adapter
AssigneeDell Products L.P.
InventorsAjay Kwatra, Robert Allen, Kwabena Asante
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An external power adapter prevents damage to contacts of power connectors by reducing current in-rush when the powered-up external power adapter is coupled to an information handling system. A control signal from the information handling system is used to initiate a voltage output of the external power adapter such that substantially no voltage is present on the contacts of the power connectors until the control signal is detected by the external power adapter. The external power adapter may determine the presence of an electrical load before applying the output voltage to the information handling system. The output voltage may be ramped from substantially no voltage to operating voltage over a period of time.
Claims24
An information handling system having an external power adapter, said system comprising:
- an information handling system having an input power connector;
- an external power adapter having an output power connector adapted for coupling to the input power connector of the information handling system;
- and
- a voltage control circuit for controlling an output voltage from the external power adapter, wherein the output voltage is substantially reduced until the external power adapter senses that the output power connector is coupled to the input power connector.
An external power adapter for an information handling system, comprising:
- an external power adapter having an output power connector adapted for coupling to an input power connector of an information handling system;
- and
- a voltage control circuit for controlling an output voltage from the external power adapter, wherein the output voltage is substantially reduced until the external power adapter senses that the output power connector is coupled to the input power connector.
A method of soft power-up for an external power adapter, said method comprising:
- sensing when an output power connector of an external power adapter is coupled to an input power connector of an information handling system;
- and
- controlling an output voltage from the external power adapter so that the output voltage is substantially reduced until the output power connector and the input power connector are coupled together.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.