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EP0315366A2 Expired / Lapsed EP ⏱️ 0.0 years remaining

A regulated dc power supply having master and slave regulators

Assignee: International Business Machines Corp
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Filing: 1988-10-27
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2008-10-27
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Abstract

Abstract A d.c. power supply system comprises a plurality of voltage regulator power supplies (21, 23, 25) connected in a master slave configuration, the number of regulators being one greater than required to provide load current requirements. The master regulator (21) generates a control signal to control the output of the individual slave regulators (23, 25) to provide balanced load sharing. Failure of one of the slave regulators is detected and the failed regulator replaced by the redundant regulator without interference to the output load current. Failure of the master regulator (21) is detected by steering circuitry (61, 63) within each slave which senses an improper master error signal and transfers control to the reference error amplifier circuitry of the slave regulators. Diagnosis of the error conditions is provided by logical analysis of output currents.

Inventors

  • 👤 Robert Anthony Biamonte
  • 👤 Joseph William Bogdanski
  • 👤 Kevin Robert Covi
  • 👤 Herman Paul Meyer
  • 👤 Daniel Ira Rafkind

Bibliographic Details

Application Number —
Jurisdiction EP
Data Source google_patents
Last Synchronized 2026-10-30 09:19
CPC Classifications
G; G05; G05F; G05F1/00; G05F1/10; G05F1/46; G05F1/56; G05F1/59; H; H02; H02M; H02M3/00; H02M3/22; H02M3/24; H02M3/28; H02M3/285

Claims Analysis

Total Claims: 8
Claim 1
Independent Claim 139 words
A regulated voltage D.C. power supply system comprising, in combination, a master switching regulator (21) for providing an output to a load, a plurality of slave switching regulators (23, 25) connected in parallel with the master regulator to supply the load, the master and slave switching regulators comprising a redundant configuration of N+1 switching regulators wherein each of the regulators contributes a substantially equal amount to the load, the master switching regulator having a current mode control circuit operative to compare the output signal from the master switching regulator with a reference to generate an error signal, each of the slave switching regulators also having a current mode control circuit, and means responsive to the failure of the master switching regulator to transfer control from the master to the slave regulators while maintaining a stable output to the load.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim 139 words
A regulated voltage D.C. power supply system comprising, in combination, a master switching regulator (21) for providing an output to a load, a plurality of slave switching regulators (23, 25) connected in parallel with the master regulator to supply the load, the master and slave switching regulators comprising a redundant configuration of N+1 switching regulators wherein each of the regulators contributes a substantially equal amount to the load, the master switching regulator having a current mode control circuit operative to compare the output signal from the master switching regulator with a reference to generate an error signal, each of the slave switching regulators also having a current mode control circuit, and means responsive to the failure of the master switching regulator to transfer control from the master to the slave regulators while maintaining a stable output to the load.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim 43 words
A power supply system as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the master and slave switching regulators include a feedback loop from the load whereby each of the slave switching regulators can control its own output current upon failure of the master switching regulator.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim 39 words
A power supply system as claimed in Claim 1, wherein each of the slave regulators has an individual auxiliary error signal feedback means switchable into operation to control the respective slave regulator upon failure of the master switching regulator.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim 31 words
A power supply system as claimed in Claim 2, wherein the failure of the master switching regulator is detected in terms of excursion of the master error signal outside predetermined limits.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim 26 words
A power supply system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the current mode control of the master switching regulator comprises a pulse width modulation technique.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim 25 words
A power supply system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the current control of the slave switching regulators comprises a pulse width modulation technique.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim 26 words
A power supply system as claimed in any preceding Claim, wherein failure of one of the slave switching regulators is compensated for by the redundant configuration.

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