Series regulated rectifier circuit for a battery charging system
AssigneeRobert Bosch GmbH
InventorsWolfgang Kurz, Ulrich Munz
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Abstract
A conventional on-off voltage regulator operates a set of power MOSFET switches interposed between the grounded terminal of the battery and each of the diodes of a bridge rectifier leading to that terminal. Each such switch is controlled through an individual circuit responsive to the regulator output and including an opto-electronic device controlling a thryistor which, in addition to being connected to control the MOSFET switch, also has a connection through a resistor and a diode to the other side of the rectifier diode switched by the MOSFET. The circuit greatly simplifies voltage regulation of a battery charging system using an alternator with a permanent magnet rotor.
Claims6
In a battery charging system comprising an alternator, means for rectifying the output of the alternator and a voltage regulator responsive to the rectified voltage for activating and deactivating action corrective of the output voltage, a controlled rectifier circuit responsive to said voltage regulator and comprising:
- a bridge rectifier having a first set of rectifier elements serving the positive output terminal and a second set of rectifier elements serving the negative output terminal of said rectifier circuit and having series regulation switching means (26) comprising a MOSFET device interposed in series with each series-regulated rectifier element of at least one of said sets of rectifier elements, and
- a set of switching control circuits responsive to the output of said voltage regulator for respectively controlling the said series regulation switching means interposed in circuit with said respective rectifier elements, each circuit of said set of circuits including a thyristor (36) for control of one of said MOSFETs (26), the control terminal of said thyristor being connected so as to be responsive to the output of said voltage regulator (27).
A rectifier circuit in a battery charging system as defined in claim 3, in which said series regulation switching means are interposed in series with the rectifier elements of only one set of rectifier elements of said bridge rectifier.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.