Power interruption system for electronic circuit breaker
AssigneeHamilton Sunstrand Corporation
InventorsBruce D. Beneditz, Donald G. Kilroy
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system and method for controlling an electronic circuit breaker prevents the circuit breaker from contributing its own delay to a power interruption time window on a load. A monitor coupled to a control processor in the circuit breaker causes the control processor to operate in a low-energy consumption sleep mode if it detects a power interruption. During the sleep mode, the control processor draws current from an energy storage device until the power source is reconnected to the control processor. Because the control processor operation is suspended rather than stopped during the power interruption, the control processor does not need to conduct any preliminary power up operations when power is resumed.
Claims17
An electronic circuit breaker, comprising:
- a control power supply connectable to a power source;
- a control processor;
- a switch controllable by the control processor for selectively connecting a load to the power source;
- a monitor separate of the control processor that outputs a sleep mode signal to place the control processor in a sleep mode when a power interruption is detected;
- an energy storage device coupled to the control processor, wherein the energy storage device powers the control processor when the control processor is in the sleep mode;
- and
- a switch control/memory circuit operatively coupled to at least one output of the control processor, the switch control/memory circuit being controllable by the control processor and coupled to the switch, wherein the switch control/memory circuit periodically recovers from a low power state to keep the switch in an ON state.
An electronic circuit breaker, comprising:
- a control power supply connectable to a power source;
- a control processor having an ON output line and an OFF output line, wherein the ON and OFF output lines are tri-stated or off;
- a switch coupled to the ON and OFF output lines for selectively connecting a load to the power source;
- a monitor separate of the control processor that outputs a sleep mode signal to place the control processor in a sleep mode when a power interruption is detected;
- an energy storage device coupled to the power supply, wherein the energy storage device powers the control processor when the control processor is in the sleep mode;
- a switch coupled to the ON and OFF output lines and selectively connectable to a load to control current flow to the load;
- and
- a switch control/memory circuit coupled to at least one output of the control processor and the switch, the switch control/memory circuit being controllable by the control processor and coupled to the switch, wherein the switch control/memory circuit periodically recovers from a low power state to keep the switch in an ON state.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.