Metal working – Method of mechanical manufacture – Electrical device making
Reexamination Certificate
1997-11-06
2001-05-15
Young, Lee (Department: 3729)
Metal working
Method of mechanical manufacture
Electrical device making
C029S842000, C029S846000, C174S1170FF, C427S097100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06230403
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to automatically designing custom power converters.
Power converters accept power from an electrical input source and convert it into a form suitable for use by electrical loads. One class of power conversion systems, called power supplies, are typically used to convert power derived from a utility source, such as an AC utility line or a DC telecommunications battery, into one or more regulated DC voltages (e.g., 5V, 12V, 48V) used for powering electronic circuitry. Specifications for a power supply are application specific. Thus, while many power supplies may share certain common characteristics such as a similar input voltage range or the presence of a 5-volt output, many power supplies are customized, by design, for use in a particular product or system.
Design of a custom power supply involves different skills and usually takes months to complete. For example, a typical custom power supply design may involve design of electronic power conversion circuitry; design, layout and procurement of printed circuit boards, packaging and cooling elements, source interface “front-end” circuitry (such as power factor correcting front-end circuitry or “auto-ranging” rectification circuitry for use with AC utility sources) and conducted EMI filter components; fabrication of prototype assemblies; qualification and testing of prototypes with respect to electrical, thermal, mechanical and EMI/RFI specifications; and acquisition and submission of test data for obtaining safety agency (e.g., Underwriters Laboratories, Canadian Standards Association) approvals. In addition, money and effort must also usually be invested in the development and qualification of manufacturing processes and equipment for each different custom power supply.
Widespread commercial availability of high density power components such as modular DC-DC power converters and related front-end power components helped simplify and shorten the custom power supply design cycle by eliminating the need to design, qualify and obtain agency approvals on power conversion and front-end interface circuitry. However, weeks or months of effort are still often required to perform the packaging, thermal and other design and qualification tasks required to develop a custom power supply using power components.
General Electric Corporation has offered prepackaged modular building blocks for configuring switching power conversion circuits. Each building block (e.g., rectifier block, switch block, output filter block) formed a portion of a switching power converter circuit and each was available in various voltage and current ratings to allow configuring supplies of different input voltage, output voltage, and power ratings. A microcomputer-based software package aided the user in selecting those building blocks which, when connected together, would result in a power converter which meets the user's functional requirements. The software selected those pre-defined blocks which would result in a certain combination of input voltage, output voltage, and power level.
Linear Technology Corporation, Milpitas, Calif., USA, has offered a software based power supply design program called SwitcherCAD; and National Semiconductor Corporation, Santa Clara, Calif., USA, has offered a software based power supply design program called Simple Switcher. Both programs accept a set of predefined functional specifications and generate parts lists and schematics for a power conversion circuit which meets the specifications. Both programs can produce designs for different topologies (e.g., isolated flyback, non-isolated PWM buck). The user of the programs can modify component values and other design parameters and observe the effects on performance, e.g., conversion efficiency. Both programs use pre-defined equations for generating a solution.
Siemens has announced an expert system which runs on a personal computer for aiding in the design of power supplies. It collects specifications for the power supply from the user, synthesizes possible structures, and reports the number of feasible solutions for the selected input/output description. The price for a specified quantity and lot size are calculated by the system. The configuration report is sent to the manufacturer's computer over a wide area network and then passed on to the development department.
The manufacturer then designs the power supply. Circuit macros stored in a CAD system are called up, placed, and the clusters are connected together to reduce development costs. The development time for designing the power supply is typically four working days which is apparently performed by the design engineers at the manufacturer.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In general, one aspect of the invention includes an automated power supply design system for aiding a user to design a custom power supply. The design system includes an expert system having a rule. An interface for receiving power supply specifications from the user is provided. A component definition system, having an input for receiving the power supply specifications, generates a complement of components and provides mechanical parameters for the components. A mechanical layout system has an input for receiving the mechanical parameters and an input for receiving the power supply specifications and generates a mechanical design of the custom power supply constrained by enforcing the rule.
Implementations of the invention may include one or more of the following features.
An automated manufacturing specifications generator provides manufacturing specifications needed by the manufacturing system to manufacture the custom power supply. The automated manufacturing specifications generator may additionally supply specifications for any one or more of the following: manufacturing cables, a mounting plate, heatsinks, electrical power converter modules, or front-end assemblies, or for programming a programmable memory device with output control information, for the custom power supply.
A computer integrated manufacturing (“CIM”) facility includes at least one fabrication station for manufacturing a component for the custom power supply. The CIM facility has an input for receiving component specifications comprising selected manufacturing specifications.
A production scheduler connected to receive the component specifications allocates a time slot for production of the component by the CIM facility.
A wiring station has an input for receiving interconnection specifications for fabricating interconnection components. The interconnection specifications may be for a circuit board and the wiring station fabricates circuit boards or for a wiring harness and the wiring station fabricates wiring harnesses. Additionally, the wiring harness may include a flat multi-conductor cable element and at least two tap elements and the interconnection specifications may include one or more of the following: length and tap or fold and bend location specifications.
A heatsink station has an input for receiving heatsink specifications. The heatsink specifications may include machining instructions and the heatsink station may include machining equipment for fabricating a heatsink from metal stock. The heatsink specifications may include position information and instructions for selecting and installing prefabricated heatsink components.
The rule may include one or more of the following characteristics: (a) a limitation imposed by tooling restrictions of a manufacturing line, (b) a minimum component spacing limitation imposed to allow for wiring components, or (c) a component orientation limitation.
The power supply specifications may include power supply input specifications and output specifications and the interface may accept numerical entries.
The interface may include a layout system in which component locations may be defined in a virtual space. The layout system may include component icons representative of the complement of components. The icons may be moved around the virtual space to define the component locations. The l
Andrus Lance Lynn
Finnemore Fred M.
Hutchins Charles Francis
Skoolicas Charles Steven
Vinciarelli Patrizio
Chang Rick Kiltae
Fish & Richardson P.C.
VLT Corporation
Young Lee
LandOfFree
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