Isolated DC-to-DC converter
AssigneeAgilent Technologies, Inc.
InventorsVirgil George Leenerts, David Paul Kjosness, Gerald Irwin Raak
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An isolated direct-current to direct-current (DC-to-DC) converter and associated method are provided which employ a class-D amplifier. An alternating current (AC) input voltage and a DC input voltage drive the class-D amplifier to produce an AC primary voltage. The AC primary voltage then drives a primary winding of a transformer, thereby generating an AC secondary voltage at a secondary winding of the transformer. The AC secondary voltage then drives a rectifier, yielding a rectified voltage. A low-pass filter is then accepts the rectified voltage to produce a DC output voltage.
Claims34
An isolated direct-current-to-direct-current (DC-to-DC) converter, comprising:
- a class-D amplifier configured to be driven by an alternating current (AC) input voltage and a DC input voltage, the class-D amplifier thus configured to generate an AC primary voltage;
- a transformer having a primary winding configured to be driven by the AC primary voltage, the transformer thus configured to generate an AC secondary voltage at a secondary winding;
- a rectifier configured to be driven by the AC secondary voltage, the rectifier thus configured to generate a rectified voltage;
- a first low-pass filter configured to be driven by the rectified voltage, the low-pass filter thus configured to produce a DC output voltage;
- and
- a second low pass filter connected to the primary winding, wherein the second low-pass filter is adapted to remove harmonic components of a switching frequency.
An electronic circuit for converting a first direct-current (DC) voltage to a second DC voltage, comprising:
- means for generating a pulse-width-modulated voltage whose pulse width varies with an alternating current (AC) input voltage;
- means for switching the first DC voltage based on the state of the pulse-width-modulated voltage to yield a switched DC voltage;
- means for low-pass-filtering the switched DC voltage to yield a primary AC voltage;
- means for applying the primary AC voltage to a primary winding of a transformer to yield a secondary AC voltage at a secondary winding of the transformer;
- means for rectifying the secondary AC voltage to yield a rectified voltage;
- and
- means for low-pass-filtering the rectified voltage to yield the second DC voltage.
A method for converting a first direct-current (DC) voltage to a second DC voltage, comprising:
- generating a pulse-width-modulated voltage whose pulse width varies with an alternating current (AC) input voltage;
- switching the first DC voltage based on the state of the pulse-width-modulated voltage to yield a switched DC voltage;
- low-pass-filtering the switched DC voltage to yield a primary AC voltage;
- applying a primary AC voltage to the primary winding of a transformer to yield a secondary AC voltage at a secondary winding of the transformer;
- rectifying the secondary AC voltage to yield a rectified voltage;
- and
- low-pass-filtering the rectified voltage to yield the second DC voltage.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.