US 4,729,086 AGranted

Power supply system which shares current from a single redundant supply with multiple segmented loads

AssigneeUnisys Corporation

InventorPatrice R. A. Lethellier

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Abstract

A power supply system includes a plurality of dedicated power supplies, each of which has a separate output terminal for furnishing output current to just one respective load. Each dedicated power supply has a switch for turning the supply on and off independent of the remaining dedicated supplies. A single redundant power supply is also included which turns on when every dedicated supply is on. And, a control circuit is included which shares output current from the redundant supply, when it is on, with the loads of only a subset of the dedicated supplies, such that the total shared output current from the redundant supply and the respective output current from each dedicated supply in the subset are all substantially equal. This subset consists of any dedicated supply which fails, and those dedicated supplies whose output current to their load when the redundant supply is off exceeds the equalized current.

Claims11

Dependent claims

A power supply system which is comprised of:

a plurality of dedicated power supplies, each of which has a separate output terminal for furnishing output current to just one respective load;
each dedicated power supply also having a switch for turning the supply on and off independent of the remaining dedicated supplies;
a single redundant power supply which is coupled to said switches to turn on only when every dedicated supply is on;
a current output terminal on said redundant supply which is coupled in parallel through a set of unidirectional conductors to the output terminal of every dedicated power supply;
said redundant supply as well as each dedicated supply having a control circuit, with a control terminal which varies the amount of current from the output terminal of the corresponding supply in proportion to the magnitude of a control voltage on the control terminal;
and
an equalizing means coupled to the control terminal of each supply for substantially equalizing the output current of just a subset of said dedicated power supplies with the output current of said redundant supply, when it is on, by equalizing their control voltage;
said subset consisting of any dedicated supply which fails and those dedicated supplies whose control voltage decreases when it is equalized.

5 more elements

A power supply system which is comprised of:

a plurality of dedicated power supplies, each of which has a separate output terminal for furnishing output current to just one respective load,
each dedicated power supply also having a means for turning the supply on and off independent of the remaining dedicated supplies;
a single redundant power supply which is coupled to turn on when every dedicated supply is on;
and
a means for sharing output current from said redundant supply, when it is on, with the loads of only a subset of said dedicated supplies, such that the total shared output current from said redundant supply and the respective output current from each dedicated supply in said subset are all substantially equal;
said subset consisting of any dedicated supply which fails and those dedicated supplies whose output current to their load when said redundant supply is off exceeds the equalized current.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.