Ideal diode
OwnerRobert Reynoldsinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An active switch for electrically connecting and disconnecting a power source such as an energy harvester to a charge storage device is disclosed. The active switch allows a minimal amount of reverse back current flow from the charge storage device to the power source and zero quiescent current from the charge storage device to the active switch having a high off-resistance.
Claims17
An energy harvesting system, comprising:
- an intermittent current limited power source;
- a device for storing charge;
- and an active switch;
- said active switch powered by said current limited power source for electrically connecting and disconnecting the power source to the device wherein when disconnecting the power source from the storage device the active switch allows a minimal amount of reverse back current flow from the storage device to the power source and zero quiescent current from the charge storage device to the active switch and wherein a pull down resistor ensures said active switch shuts off when no power source is available.
An energy harvesting system, comprising:
- an intermittent current limited power source;
- a device for storing charge;
- and a field effect transistor operated by a current directional detector;
- said current directional detector powered by said current limited power source wherein said field effect transistor and said current directional detector control electrically connects and disconnects the power source to the device wherein when disconnecting the power source from the device the combination of the field effect transistor and control current directional detector with a pull down resistor allows a minimal amount of reverse back current flow from the device to the power source and zero quiescent current from the charge storage device to the active switch.
An active switch for use in energy harvesting systems comprising a field effect transistor operated by an operational amplifier having a pull down resistor to ensure electrically connecting and disconnecting a power source to a device whereby when disconnecting the power source from the device allows a minimal amount of reverse back current flow from the device to the power source and zero quiescent current from the charge storage device to the active switch.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.