Systems and methods for transferring power across an isolation barrier

• US 10,367,489 B2
• Filed: 10/13/2017
• Issued: 07/30/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Analog Devices Global Unlimited Company (Analog Devices, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Analog Devices, Inc.
• Inventors: Zaplana, Ricardo
• Primary Examiner(s): Hernandez, William
• Application Number:
  US15/783,930
• Publication Number:
  US 20180109246A1
• Time in Patent Office: 655 Days
• Field of Search: 327164, 327551
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/12 of the resonant type
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 3/33523 with galvanic isolation between input and output of both the power stage and the feedback loop
• CPC Class Codes: H03B 2200/004 including a variable capacitance, e.g. a varicap, a varactor or a variable capacitance of a diode or transistor
• CPC Class Codes: H03B 2201/025 the means being an electronic switch for switching in or out oscillator elements
• CPC Class Codes: H03B 5/1265 switched capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 3/017 Adjustment of width or dutycycle of pulses pulse width modulation H03K7/08 ; to maintain energy constant H03K3/015
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 3/84 Generating pulses having a predetermined statistical distribution of a parameter, e.g. random pulse generators
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 5/1252 Suppression or limitation of noise or interference specially adapted for transmission systems H04B15/00, H04L25/08
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 5/24 the characteristic being amplitude
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/24 Inductive coupling
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/10 Technologies improving the efficiency by using switched-mode power supplies [SMPS], i.e. efficient power electronics conversion e.g. power factor correction or reduction of losses in power supplies or efficient standby modes

Abstract

It is often desirable to transmit data between circuits or components operating at a relatively high voltage and circuits operating at a relatively low voltage. Such a task can be performed by use of an isolator. Some isolator designs use magnetic coupling to transfer the data as this is more robust against inadvertently transmitting high voltage transients than capacitor based isolators. However it is often desirable to encode the data for exchange across the transformer of the isolator and decode after transmission across the transformer. This requires power for the encoding and decoding circuits. To ensure both sides are powered, power may be transferred by another transformer. The transformer primary is driven by an oscillating signal. The system disclosed in some embodiments herein varies the frequency of the oscillating signal to mitigate the risk of it interfering with other circuits or systems associated with the isolator.

Claims

1. A system for transferring power across an isolation barrier, the system comprising:

a transformer having a primary winding on a first side of the isolation barrier and a secondary winding on a second side of the isolation barrier;

an oscillator coupled to the primary winding and configured to establish in the primary winding an oscillating power signal; and

a dither circuit coupled to the oscillator and configured to dither a parameter of the oscillating power signal.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the dither circuit is configured to add a dither to an oscillation frequency of the oscillating power signal.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the dither circuit comprises a plurality of capacitors selectively coupled to the primary winding of the transformer.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the dither circuit comprises a pseudo random number generator configured to control coupling of the plurality of capacitors to the primary winding.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a power receiver coupled to the secondary winding and a feedback controller coupled to the power receiver and configured to generate an oscillator activation control signal.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the feedback controller is configured to add a dither to a cycle time of the oscillator activation control signal or to a duty cycle of the oscillator activation control signal.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the feedback controller is configured to dither a signal representative of a voltage across a charge storage device connected to or part of the power receiver to add the dither to the oscillator activation control signal.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the feedback controller further comprises a charging circuit configured to dither a charging current and/or a capacitance of the charging circuit to add the dither to the oscillator activation control signal.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the feedback controller comprises a counter circuit configured to generate the oscillator activation control signal by comparing a signal representing a voltage across a charge storage device with a counter value of the counter circuit, and wherein the feedback controller is configured to dither one or more of:

a counter increment;

a counter rate of the counter circuit;

an initial value of the counter circuit;

or an offset applied to the signal representing the voltage.

10. A method of transferring power across an isolation barrier, the method comprising:

generating an oscillating power signal in a first side of the isolation barrier;

transferring the oscillating power signal from the first side of the isolation barrier to a second side of the isolation barrier; and

dithering the oscillating power signal to modify a spectral distribution of the oscillating power signal.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein dithering the oscillating power signal comprises adding a dither to an oscillation frequency of the oscillating power signal.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the oscillating power signal is generated by an oscillator having a capacitance, and wherein adding the dither to the oscillating frequency of the oscillating power signal comprises varying the capacitance of the oscillator.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein varying the capacitance of the oscillator comprises varying the capacitance of the oscillator in a pseudo random manner.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein generating the oscillating power signal comprises using an oscillator to generate the oscillating power signal, and wherein dithering the oscillating power signal comprises adding a dither to a duty cycle or cycle length of a control signal used to control whether the oscillator is enabled or disabled.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising generating the control signal based on an amount of electrical charge stored at the second side of the isolation barrier or a voltage at a load on the second side of the isolation barrier.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein adding a dither to the duty cycle or cycle length of the control signal comprises setting the duty cycle or cycle length of the control signal as a function of the amount of electrical charge stored at the second side of the isolation barrier or the voltage at the load on the second side of the isolation barrier.

17. A system for transferring power across an isolation barrier, the system comprising:

a transformer separating first and second sides of the isolation barrier, the transformer having a primary winding on the first side of the isolation barrier and a secondary winding on the second side of the isolation barrier;

an oscillator on the first side of the isolation barrier configured to provide an oscillating power signal to the primary winding of the transformer;

a power receiver on the second side of the isolation barrier coupled to the secondary winding of the transformer to receive the oscillating power signal;

a control circuit coupled to the power receiver and configured to generate a pseudo random number or sequence; and

an oscillator driver coupled to the control circuit and configured to drive the oscillator to establish the oscillating power signal based on the pseudo random number or sequence.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the control circuit and oscillator driver are coupled via an isolator.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the oscillator driver is configured to dither an oscillation frequency of the oscillating power signal.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the control circuit is configured to generate the pseudo random number or sequence based on a voltage stored on the second side of the isolation barrier.