CLOCKED ELECTRONIC ENERGY CONVERTER

• US 20160204700A1
• Filed: 08/06/2014
• Published: 07/14/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ABL IP Holding LLC (Acuity Brands, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: OSRAM GmbH (Ams-Osram AG)
• Inventors: Schwarzfischer, Christof, Mayer, Siegfried, Busse, Olaf
• Granted Patent: US 9,967,931 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/0032 Control circuits allowing low power mode operation, e.g. in standby mode
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/0054 Transistor switching losses periodically suspending operation of switching converter in low power mode H02M1/0035
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/0058 by employing soft switching techniques, i.e. commutation of transistors when applied voltage is zero or when current flow is zero using an auxiliary actively switched resonant commutation circuit connected to an intermediate DC voltage or between two push-pull branches of an inverter bridge H02M7/4811; in resonant inverters H02M7/4815; in inverters operating from a resonant DC source H02M7/4826
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/08 Circuits specially adapted for the generation of control voltages for semiconductor devices incorporated in static converters
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 3/156 with automatic control of output voltage or current, e.g. switching regulators
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 45/335 Pulse-frequency modulation [PFM]
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 45/355 Power factor correction [PFC]; Reactive power compensation
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 45/3725 Switched mode power supply [SMPS]
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 45/375 using buck topology
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 45/38 using boost topology
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 45/382 with galvanic isolation between input and output
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 20/30 Semiconductor lamps, e.g. solid state lamps [SSL] light emitting diodes [LED] or organic LED [OLED]
• 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

A clocked electronic energy converter may include an electronic switching element, at least two electrical energy storage devices, connections for connecting an electrical energy source and for connecting an electrical energy sink, a clock generator for controlling the electronic switching element and a switch-on time unit for generating a first signal for the clock generator, which switch-on time unit sets the power of the energy converter to be transmitted in a first power range by the first signal. The switch-on time unit generates a first signal representing a switch-on time for the clock generator in a second power range in which the power lower can be set than in the first power range, and the clocked electronic energy converter has a switch-off time unit generating in the second power range a second signal for the clock generator, which signal represents a switch-off time depending upon the power to be transmitted.

Claims

1. A clocked electronic energy converter comprising:

an electronic switching element,

at least two electrical energy stores,

a first connection for connecting an electrical energy source,

a second connection for connecting an electrical energy sink,

a clock generator for driving and operating the electronic switching element in switching operation,

a switch-on time unit for generating a first signal for the clock generator, which switch-on time unit is designed to set a power to be transmitted of the energy converter in a first power range by means of the first signal and to generate, in a second power range, in which the power can be set to be less than in the first power range, a first signal for the clock generator, said first signal representing a fixedly predefined switch-on time,

a switch-off time unit, which is designed to generate a second signal for the clock generator in the second power range, said second signal representing a supplementary switch-off time depending on the power to be transmitted,

wherein the electronic energy converter is designed to control the switch-on time unit and the switch-off time unit jointly by means of a single third signal.

2. The energy converter as claimed in claim 1, wherein the switch-off time unit is designed to carry out the determination of the supplementary switch-off time in the second power range taking account of an electrical voltage present at the first connection and/or an electrical voltage present at the second connection.

3. The energy converter as claimed in claim 2, wherein the switch-off time unit is designed to determine a voltage form of the electrical voltage present at the first connection and to carry out the determination of the supplementary switch-off time in the second power range depending on the determined voltage form.

4. The energy converter as claimed in claim 1, wherein the energy converter is designed to operate in the second power range in the case where a power of the energy converter that is drawn at the first connection is at most 1 W.

5. The energy converter as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a detection unit for determining a switch-off time for the electronic switching element, said switch-off time arising intrinsically as a result of the electronic energy converter.

6. The energy converter as claimed in claim 1, further comprising an energy detector for detecting at least the energy stored in one of the electrical energy stores of the energy converter.

7. A lighting device comprising an illuminant and an electrical connection for connecting the lighting device to an electrical energy source, wherein the lighting device comprises a clocked electronic energy converter, which supplies, as load, the illuminant with electrical energy in a power-controllable manner

the clocked electronic energy converter comprising:

an electronic switching element,

at least two electrical energy stores,

a first connection for connecting an electrical energy source,

a second connection for connecting an electrical energy sink,

a clock generator for driving and operating the electronic switching element in switching operation,

a switch-on time unit for generating a first signal for the clock generator,

which switch-on time unit is designed to set a power to be transmitted of the energy converter in a first power range by means of the first signal and to generate, in a second power range, in which the power can be set to be less than in the first power range, a first signal for the clock generator, said first signal representing a fixedly predefined switch-on time,

a switch-off time unit, which is designed to generate a second signal for the clock generator in the second power range, said second signal representing a supplementary switch-off time depending on the power to be transmitted, wherein the electronic energy converter is designed to control the switch-on time unit and the switch-off time unit jointly by means of a single third signal.

8. A method for setting an electrical power to be transmitted by means of a clocked electronic energy converter, for which purpose an electronic switching element of the electronic energy converter is operated in switching operation, wherein, in a first power range, the power is set depending on a settable switch-on time and a switch-off time for the electronic switching element, said switch-off time arising intrinsically as a result of the electronic energy converter and following the switch-on time, and wherein, in a second power range, in which the power is set to be less than in the first power range, the switch-on time is kept substantially constant and the switch-off time for the electronic switching element is lengthened by a supplementary switch-off time that can be set depending on the power to be transmitted,

wherein, in the second power range, the switch-on time and the supplementary switch-off time are determined jointly depending on a single third signal.

9. The method as claimed in claim 8,

wherein the supplementary switch-off time is determined in the second power range in such a way that the power to be transmitted depends on the third signal in the same way as if the power to be transmitted in the second power range were controlled analogously to the first power range.

10. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the power to be transmitted is changed continuously in the event of a change in the power range.

11. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the time period required by one of the electrical energy stores of the energy converter after the switch-on time until it no longer outputs electrical energy is determined as the switch-off time.

12. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the supplementary switch-off time is determined depending on the third signal, wherein the determination is carried out by means of a reciprocal value—

weighted with a factor—

of the third signal, from which an offset value is subtracted.

13. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the supplementary switch-off time is determined taking into account in each case steady-state conditions for an electrical voltage of an energy source connected to the energy converter and of an electrical voltage provided by the energy converter for a load connected to the energy converter such that the supplementary switch-off time depends exclusively on the desired power.

14. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the energy converter, on the input side, uses an AC voltage and is controlled in such a way that an input-side power factor is maximized.

15. The method as claimed in claim 14, wherein the supplementary switch-off time, in the case of a constant third signal, is likewise constant within half a period or a whole period of the AC voltage used on the input side.