High frequency poly-phase rectifier for converting AC power signal to DC
AssigneeHughes Aircraft Company
InventorsRobert D. Washburn, Robert S. Wedeen, Robert F. McClanahan, William J. Council, David M. Lusher
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A power rectifying circuit (10) for converting an AC power signal to DC which includes a plurality of rectifiers (20) that receive power from a single AC power source (12). The AC power signal is power split amongst the plurality of rectifiers (20). Each power split signal is phase shifted by an incremental amount of phase shift and provided to on of the rectifiers (20). The rectified DC output of each rectifier is summed together and provided to a load (22) as DC power.
Claims12
A power rectifying circuit for converting alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC), comprising:
- input means for receiving an AC power signal ;
- output means for supplying a load;
- a network including a plurality of rectifiers coupling the input to the output, the rectifiers being arranged parallel to each other such that the AC power signal is split among the rectifiers;
- and
- means for phase shifting the AC power signal comprising means coupled to a transmission line and displaced along its electrical length in such a manner as to provide incremental phase shifts to each rectifier, so that the AC power signal is applied to each of the rectifiers with a different phase.
A power rectifying circuit comprising:
- a single source of AC power signal;
- a network having a plurality of parallel branches;
- rectification means in each branch for rectifying a signal applied to an input thereof;
- means for coupling the AC power signal to inputs of each branch;
- phase shifter means in each branch for shifting the phase of the AC signal by a preselected phase shift, comprising means coupled to a transmission line and displaced along its electrical length in such a manner as to provide incremental phase shift to each rectifier, wherein each phase shifter means operating to shift the phase in each branch by a different amount to thereby decrease the current flow through each rectification means in each branch and increase the efficiency of the rectifying circuit.
A method for converting alternating circuit (AC) to direct current (DC), which comprises:
- receiving a single high frequency AC power signal;
- splitting the AC power signal among a plurality of rectifiers;
- incrementally shifting the phase of the AC power signal among the rectifiers by coupling said AC to a transmission line and displacing along an electrical length of said transmission line;
- rectifying the phase shifted signals in each rectifier;
- summing the rectified phase shifted signals together to generate a DC output signal;
- and
- applying the DC output signal to a load.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.