Method of providing reliable switching for DSL relay array
AssigneeAlcatel
InventorsBruce Francis Orr, Patrick Conrick
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A known method of addressing relays in an array is to provide two windings on each relay, wherein one winding is associated with a row drive signal and one winding is associated with a column drive signal, and half of the required activation current is provided by each winding. A known limitation of such addressing arrangements is limited discrimination between selected relays and non-selected relays. The present invention relates to an enhanced addressing system for such arrays of relays.
Claims8
A method of operating a relay array using row and column addressing to improve discrimination between selected and non-selected relays, including:
- applying a first current less than the trip current to a row containing the selected relay;
- applying a second current less than the trip current to the other rows, and having the opposite sense to the first current;
- applying a third current to the column containing the selected relay, the third current having the same sense as the first current;
- wherein the sum of the first and third currents is greater than the trip current.
A relay array driver having controllable sources to apply a first current to the row containing a selected relay, and to apply a second current of the opposite polarity to the rows which do not contain the selected relay, and to apply a third current to the column which contains the selected relay.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.