US 7,598,694 B2Granted

Power supply apparatus

AssigneeSansha Electric Manufacturing Company, Limited

InventorsHideo Ishii, Toru Arai

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Abstract

A power supply unit includes an input-side rectifying circuit (4), an inverter (8) and an output-side rectifying circuit (12), which include power semiconductor devices. The power supply unit is powered during a powering period, and the powering is interrupted during a pausing period. The powering and pausing periods alternate. A fan (18) is driven during each powering period to cool the power semiconductor devices. A temperature detector (30) measures the temperature of the power semiconductor devices and develops a measured-temperature representative signal. A setter (38) produces a reference value, which decreases over the pausing period from the measured-temperature representative signal at the beginning of the pausing period to an intended-temperature representative signal representing the temperature to be attained by the power semiconductor devices at the end of the pausing period. The reference value is prepared from the measured-temperature representative signal at the beginning of the pausing period, the intended-temperature representative signal, and the length of the pausing period. An error amplifier (36) and a fan control unit (22) control the rotation rate of the fan (18) to make the measured-temperature representative signal track the reference value.

Claims3

Dependent claims

A power supply apparatus comprising:

a power supply unit having heat-generating components including a power semiconductor device;
and
a fan for cooling said heat-generating components;
said power supply unit alternately assuming a powering state in which said power supply unit is powered for a predetermined powering period, and a pausing state in which powering of said power supply unit is stopped for a predetermined pausing period, said fan being driven in said powering state;
wherein said power supply apparatus further comprises:
temperature measuring means for measuring the temperature of said heat-generating components and developing a measured-temperature representative signal representing the measured temperature;
reference value generating means producing a reference value based on said measured-temperature representative signal at the beginning of said pausing state, an intended-temperature representative signal representing the temperature intended to be reached at the end of said pausing state, and the length of said pausing period, said reference value decreasing over said pausing period from said measured-temperature representative signal at the beginning of said pausing state to said intended-temperature representative signal;
and
control means for controlling the rotation rate of said fan in such a manner that said measure-temperature representative signal can substantially track said reference value.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.