Circuit for generating high voltage to ignite oil or gas or operative neon tubes
AssigneeHoneywell International Inc.
InventorDonald S. Foreman
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A solid state power supply circuit for providing high frequency power to ignite oil or gas and operate neon sign transformers. A switch operates in conjunction with a resonant tank circuit to supply power to the resonant tank at a predetermined time. The timing of the pulse is controlled to occur when the operation of the transistor will result in providing maximum energy to the load while minimizing power dissipation in the transistor. An amplifier and clamping circuit also operate to limit the duration of the pulse to further reduce power dissipation in the switch.
Claims15
A high frequency power supply comprising:
- a transformer having at least a primary and secondary winding;
- a switch for selectively supplying power from a power source;
- a resonant tank having an inductive portion for forming a resonance signal, said resonant tank coupled to said switch;
- a sensor for sensing a waveform in said resonant tank;
- an amplifier operatively connected to the sensor for amplifying the waveform;
- and
- a clamp coupled between said amplifier and said switch for diverting power from said switch based upon the amplified waveform from said amplifier.
A method of providing high frequency power to a transformer comprising the steps of:
- A. Providing power to a resonant tank circuit for generating high frequency resonance;
- B. Obtaining the phase information of a waveform from the resonant tank wherein said waveform is representative of the current in the resonant tank;
- C. Amplifying the phase information from the waveform in the resonant tank;
- D. Activating a switch when the amplified waveform reaches a predetermined position said switch being activated when the current flowing in the resonant tank is at or near zero;
- E. Providing power to the resonant tank when the switch is activated;
- and
- F. Providing power to a transformer from the resonant tank.
A high frequency power supply, comprising:
- a current source having a first and second output,
- a transformer having at least two primary and one secondary windings;
- a resonance capacitive means, coupled to at least one primary winding of said transformer for causing resonance with said primary windings, further coupled to said current source;
- a sensor coupled to said resonance capacitve means for supplying a waveform indicative of the resonance in said resonance capacitive means;
- an amplifier coupled to said sensor operable to amplify the waveform;
- a switch operable to supply power from said current source to said resonance capacitive means;
- and
- a clamp coupled to said amplifier, said switch, and said resonance capacitive means, said clamp operable to rapidly activate or deactivate said switch.
An improved high frequency power supply circuit of the parallel-resonant sinusoidal power oscillator type in which a switching transistor is used to supply power to a resonant tank circuit for providing high frequency power to a transformer, wherein the improvement comprises:
- means for sensing a sinusoidal waveform resonating in the resonant tank circuit;
- an amplifier operable to amplify the sinusoidal waveform in the resonant tank circuit;
- and
- a clamp operable to rapidly supply to or remove power from the transistor based upon a predetermined position of the amplified sinusoidal waveform from the resonant tank circuit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.