Mitigating sparks in an ion wind fan
AssigneeVentiva, Inc.
InventorsDaniel Jon SCHLITZ, Anil Khubchandani
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Ion wind fans are susceptible to sparks occurring across an emitter electrode and a collector electrode of an ion wind fan. According to one embodiment, the present invention includes mitigating a spark event by providing a resistor in series between an ion wind fan power supply and an ion wind fan. In one embodiment, the resistance of the resistor is at least one order of magnitude lower than the resistance across the ion wind fan during normal operation.
Claims33
An ion wind cooling system comprising:
- a transformer to step up a voltage received from a system power supply to a desired voltage;
- a rectifier coupled to the transformer to convert the desired voltage into direct current having the desired voltage;
- a plurality of emitter electrodes electrically coupled in parallel to the rectifier;
- a collector electrode positioned so as to create an air gap between the plurality of emitter electrodes and the collector electrode;
- a ground electrically coupled to the collector electrode;
- and
- a spark mitigation resistor in series between the rectifier and the plurality of emitter electrodes, wherein the spark mitigation resistor mitigates one or more undesirable effects of a spark across one of the plurality of emitter electrodes and the collector electrode.
A thermal management solution comprising:
- an ion wind fan;
- an ion wind fan power supply electrically coupled to the ion wind fan to provide a high voltage potential across the ion wind fan;
- and
- a resistor electrically coupled to the ion wind fan power supply and the ion wind fan.
An power supply for an ion wind fan, the power supply comprising:
- a transformer to transform a voltage provided by a system power supply to a desired high voltage to operate an ion wind fan;
- and
- a resistor electrically coupled to the transformer to mitigate a spark event of the ion wind fan, the resistor having a resistance below a resistance across the ion wind fan during normal operation but above the resistance across the ion wind fan during the spark event.
An ion wind fan comprising:
- at least one emitter electrode;
- at least one collector electrode separated from the emitter electrode by an air gap, wherein ion wind is generated when a high voltage potential is applied across the emitter electrode and the collector electrode;
- and
- a resistor to mitigate the effects of a spark across the emitter electrode and the collector electrode.
An ion wind fan comprising:
- a first emitter electrode electrically coupled to a first terminal of a high voltage power supply;
- a second emitter electrode electrically coupled to the first terminal of the high voltage power supply;
- a first resistor associated with the first emitter electrode;
- a second resistor associated with the second emitter electrode;
- and
- at least one collector electrode separated from the emitter electrode by an air gap, the collector electrode being electrically coupled to a second terminal of the high voltage power supply.
A method for mitigating sparks in an ion wind fan, the method comprising:
- estimating a resistance across the ion wind fan;
- and
- selecting a resistance for a spark mitigation resistor, the selected resistance being at least one order of magnitude less than the estimated resistance across the ion wind fan.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.