Saturating Series Clipper
AssigneeEldon Technology Limited
InventorPeter R. Miles
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A clipper circuit for regulating an unregulated or semi-regulated output of a power supply unit. The circuit includes a gate element between the load and the input voltage from the power supply unit. The gate is activated by a comparing circuit, which turns the gate on or off based on the feedback voltage of the circuit output, compared with a reference voltage. The gate is in saturation mode during normal and heavy loading and in linear mode during light loading.
Claims19
An apparatus for regulating a varying voltage supply, comprising:
- a first voltage node;
- a second voltage node;
- a gate device connected to the first voltage node and to the second voltage node, further connected to an output node;
- a switching element connected to the first voltage node, a feedback node and to ground;
- a current shunt connected to the first voltage node and the feedback node;
- a first resistive element connected to the feedback node and the output node;
- a second resistive element connected to the feedback node and ground, wherein the first resistive element and the second resistive element supply a feedback voltage to the switching element.
A method for regulating a voltage output, comprising the operations of:
- activating a switching element;
- in response decreasing a voltage level of a gate, switching the gate into a first state;
- deactivating the switching element;
- in response increasing the voltage level of the gate, switching the gate into a second state.
A voltage regulator for a multi-output power supply unit, comprising:
- a first voltage input connected to a first node;
- a comparison circuit connected to the first node, a second node, a third node, ground and a reference voltage;
- a gate device connected to the second node, the third node and a second voltage input;
- a resistive element connected to the first node and the second node;
- a current shunting element connected to the second node and a fourth node;
- a voltage divider connected to the third node and the fourth node, the voltage divider providing a first voltage to the comparison circuit, wherein
- the comparison circuit compares the first voltage to the reference voltage.
A method for regulating an output voltage of a multi-output power supply unit, comprising:
- comparing a first voltage to a reference voltage;
- in the event the first voltage exceeds a reference voltage, shunting at least a portion of a current, thereby closing a gate;
- transmitting a voltage from a supply voltage to an output of the multi-output power supply unit when the gate is closed.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.