Saturable reactor
AssigneeAllen-Bradley Company, Inc.
InventorGlen Ray
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A "figure 8" shaped saturable reactor including a central leg, two lateral legs, an upper bar connecting the upper ends of each leg, a lower bar connecting the lower ends of each leg, and a coil wrapped around the central leg, the cross-sectional area of the central leg at its narrowest point being less than the cross-sectional areas of the two lateral legs combined so that the central leg saturates prior to the lateral legs saturating.
Claims11
A saturable reactor for reducing reverse recovery current at turn off and limiting di/dt at turn on in a semiconductor switching device, the reactor positionable in a series circuit with said semiconductor device and a voltage source, the reactor comprising:
- a core including at least one central leg, at least two lateral legs disposed on opposite sides of the central leg, and at least two cross-bars, an upper cross-bar connecting the upper end of each leg and a lower cross-bar connecting the lower end of each leg, the central leg having a cross-sectional area that is smaller than the cross-sectional areas of the two lateral legs combined;
- and
- a coil wrapped around a central leg;
- whereby, when the voltage source supplies current to the circuit through the coil, the central leg becomes saturated at a lower current than the two lateral legs combined.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.