Power supplies having protection circuits
AssigneeENI Technology, Inc.
InventorPaul George Bennett
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A power supply including an inverter receiving a DC input signal from a DC input source (11). The inverter is comprised of two half bridges (S1A, S2A and S1B, S2B). Each inverter is driven by a signal source (13A, 13B), which outputs an AC signal. The output from each inverter is input to a first stage harmonic filter. The power supply includes an output circuit that includes first and second rectifiers (D1, D2) arranged about a point so that if the inverter attempts to drive the point beyond a predetermined first and second voltage, the respective rectifier conducts in order to return at least one of power and current to the DC input source. The output from the first harmonic filter (L1A, C1; L1B, C1) is output to a second harmonic filter (L2, C2) and is then output from the power supply.
Claims20
A plasma control system comprising:
- a plasma chamber excited by a radio frequency (RF) signal;
- a plasma controller for measuring operating conditions of the plasma chamber and generating control signals for varying conditions within the plasma chamber;
- and
- a RF generator for generating an RF signal to the plasma chamber, the RE generator including:
- a RF controller, the RF controller receiving the control signal from the plasma controller and generating a power supply control signal, and
- a power supply for receiving the power supply control signal and generating a RF signal in accordance with the power supply control signal, the power supply further including:
- a source of direct current (DC) voltage;
- a half-bridge inverter for receiving the DC input voltage and for generating an alternating current (AC) output signal;
- a first harmonic filter at the output of the inverter, the first harmonic filter filtering out predetermined harmonic components of the AC signal to generate a filtered AC signal;
- and
- an output circuit at the output of the first harmonic filter for receiving the filtered AC signal and feeding the filtered AC signal to a load, wherein the output circuit includes first and second rectifiers connected relative to a point in the output circuit such that if the inverter attempts to drive the point to a voltage which exceeds one of a predetermined first and second voltage, a respective one of the first and second rectifiers conducts to cause at least one of voltage and current to return to the source of DC voltage.
A plasma control system comprising:
- a plasma chamber excited by a radio frequency (RF) signal;
- a RF generator for generating an RF signal to the plasma chamber, the RF generator including:
- a RF controller, the RF controller generating a power supply control signal, and
- a power supply for receiving the power supply control signal and generating a RF signal in accordance with the power supply control signal, the power supply further including:
- a source of direct current (DC) voltage;
- a full-bridge inverter for receiving the DC input voltage and for generating an alternating current (AC) output signal, the full bridge inverter comprising a pair of half bridges;
- a first harmonic filter at the output of each respective half bridge, the harmonic filter filtering out predetermined harmonic components of the AC signal to generate a filtered AC signal;
- and
- an output circuit at the combined output of the first harmonic filters, the output circuit receiving the filtered AC signal and feeding the filtered AC signal to a load, wherein the output circuit includes first and second rectifiers connected relative to a point In the output circuit such that if the inverter attempts to drive the point to a voltage which exceeds one of a predetermined first and second voltage, a respective one of the first and second rectifiers conducts to cause at least one of voltage and current to return to the source of DC voltage.
A plasma control system comprising:
- a plasma chamber excited by a radio frequency (RF) signal;
- a plasma controller for measuring operating conditions of the plasma chamber and generating control signals for varying conditions within the plasma chamber;
- and
- a RF generator for generating an RF signal to the plasma chamber, the RF generator including:
- a RF controller, the RF controller receiving the control signal from the plasma controller an generating a power supply control signal,
- a power supply for receiving the power supply control signal and generating a RF signal in accordance with the power supply control signal, and
- a dissipation circuit receiving the RF signal, wherein if the voltage at a predetermined point of the RF generator exceeds one of a predetermined first and second voltage, the dissipation circuit conducts to cause at least one of voltage and current to dissipate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.