Monitoring the health of a cryocooler
First Claim
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1. A method comprising:
- monitoring a plurality of physical properties of a cryocooler to obtain one or more failure precursor parameters, the one or more failure precursor parameters indicating a health of the cryocooler, wherein monitoring the plurality of physical properties comprises monitoring available power headroom and slopes of a power versus time curve at different environmental temperatures wherein,power is an average power used to maintain the cryocooler at steady state over time at a given environmental temperature, andpower headroom is the difference between the average power required at steady state at a given environmental temperature and available maximum power;
accessing a health fingerprint of the cryocooler, the health fingerprint generated from collected parameters of a sample cryocooler similar to the cryocooler, and the health fingerprint associating the one or more failure precursor parameters with a health level of the cryocooler; and
estimating the health of the cryocooler in accordance with the health level.
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Abstract
According to certain embodiments, monitoring the health of a cryocooler includes monitoring physical properties of the cryocooler to obtain failure precursor parameters that indicate cryocooler health. A health fingerprint of the cryocooler is accessed. The health fingerprint associates the failure precursor parameters with a health level of the cryocooler. The health of the cryocooler is estimated in accordance with the health level.
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Citations
28 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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monitoring a plurality of physical properties of a cryocooler to obtain one or more failure precursor parameters, the one or more failure precursor parameters indicating a health of the cryocooler, wherein monitoring the plurality of physical properties comprises monitoring available power headroom and slopes of a power versus time curve at different environmental temperatures wherein, power is an average power used to maintain the cryocooler at steady state over time at a given environmental temperature, and power headroom is the difference between the average power required at steady state at a given environmental temperature and available maximum power; accessing a health fingerprint of the cryocooler, the health fingerprint generated from collected parameters of a sample cryocooler similar to the cryocooler, and the health fingerprint associating the one or more failure precursor parameters with a health level of the cryocooler; and estimating the health of the cryocooler in accordance with the health level. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. An apparatus comprising:
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a computer readable medium configured to store logic, the logic when executed by a processor configured to; monitor a plurality of physical properties of a cryocooler to obtain one or more failure precursor parameters, the failure precursor parameter indicating health of the cryocooler, wherein monitoring the plurality of physical properties comprises monitoring available power headroom and slopes of a power versus time curve at different environmental temperatures wherein, power is an average power used to maintain the cryocooler at steady state over time at a given environmental temperature, and power headroom is the difference between the average power required at steady state at a given environmental temperature and available maximum power; access a health fingerprint of the cryocooler, the health fingerprint generated from collected parameters of a sample cryocooler similar to the cryocooler, and the health fingerprint associating the one or more failure precursor parameters with a health level of the cryocooler; and estimate the health of the cryocooler in accordance with the health level. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. An apparatus comprising:
a computer readable medium configured to store logic such that when executed by a processor is configured to; monitor a plurality of physical properties of a cryocooler to obtain one or more failure precursor parameters, the one or more failure precursor parameters indicating health of the cryocooler, the one or more failure precursor parameters including at least one of an actual measured value or a value derived from the measured value, wherein monitoring the plurality of physical properties comprises monitoring available power headroom and slopes of power versus time curve at different environmental temperatures wherein, power is an average power used to maintain the cryocooler at steady state over time at a given environmental temperature and power headroom is the difference between the average power required at steady state at a given environmental temperature and available maximum power; when the cryocooler is a sample cryocooler, generate a health fingerprint of the sample cryocooler and any other cryocooler similar to the sample cryocooler from the one or more failure precursor parameters of the sample cryocooler, wherein the health fingerprint associates one or more failure precursor parameters from the sample cryocooler with a health level of the sample cryocooler and any other cryocooler similar to the sample cryocooler; when the cryocooler is not a sample cryocooler, access the health fingerprint of the cryocooler, the health fingerprint generated from collected parameters of a sample cryocooler similar to the cryocooler, the health fingerprint associating the one or more failure precursor parameters from the cryocooler with a health level of the cryocooler; estimate the health of the other cryocooler in accordance with the health level; determine that a failure precursor parameter of the one or more other failure precursor parameters has satisfied a threshold; and send a notification in response to the determination. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
Specification