Patent Description:
Uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems are commonly used in installations such as data centers, medical centers and industrial facilities. UPS systems may be used in such installations to provide backup power to maintain operation of computer, medical devices and other critical equipment in event of failure of a primary utility supply. These UPS systems commonly have an "on-line" configuration including a rectifier and inverter coupled by a DC link that is also coupled to a backup power source, such as a battery. Other UPS configurations may also be used, such as standby and line-interactive configurations.

However, data centers are evolving from data centers having dedicated IT equipment for specific applications to data centers having managed IT equipment that is application insensitive, i.e. cloud computing. This fundamental change to the data centers may have an impact on the type of UPS system needed to provide backup power to maintain operations in the data centers in the event of failure of the primary utility supply.

Attention is drawn to <CIT>, which discloses systems and methods of UPS input circuitry. The input circuitry allegedly enables a UPS system to simply connect and operate in conjunction with any suitable backup power system. In particular, once a user indicates what backup system is attached to the input circuitry, a software unit automatically configures the input circuitry to operate with the coupled backup system. Once configured, the software unit may control portions of the input circuitry such that power is continuously provided to a load. For example, once a user indicates that a flywheel based backup system is attached, the software unit may instruct the input circuitry to maintain a predetermined flywheel speed (e.g., RPM) to ensure that the system is in constant ready state to deliver backup power.

Further, <CIT> discloses a system including a plurality of equipment racks and a plurality of PDUs mounted in respective ones of the plurality of equipment racks and configured to distribute power via plural branch circuit outputs. The system further includes a UPS rack, a plurality of UPSs mounted in the UPS rack and a plurality of power cables directly coupling outputs of respective ones of the UPSs to inputs of respective ones of the PDUs. Each UPS may include a first output connector directly connected to a PDU via a power cable, and a second output connector coupled to a second connector of another UPS to provide output paralleling. For example, a connectorized bus assembly may be mounted in the UPS rack and may include a UPS output bus and a plurality of connectors, respective ones of the connectors coupling the UPS output bus to the outputs of respective ones of the UPSs.

In accordance with the present invention, a system as set forth in the independent claim is provided. Further embodiments are inter alia disclosed in the dependent claims.

The inventive subject matter now will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which illustrative embodiments of the inventive subject matter are shown. In the drawings, the relative sizes of regions or features may be exaggerated for clarity. This inventive subject matter may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the inventive subject matter to those skilled in the art.

It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being "coupled" or "connected" to another element, it can be directly coupled or connected to the other element or intervening elements may also be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being "directly coupled" or "directly connected" to another element, there are no intervening elements present. As used herein the term "and/or" includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

In addition, spatially relative terms, such as "under", "below", "lower", "over", "upper" and the like, may be used herein for ease of description to describe one element or feature's relationship to another element(s) or feature(s) as illustrated in the figures. For example, if the device in the figures is turned over, elements described as "under" or "beneath" other elements or features would then be oriented "over" the other elements or features.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the inventive subject matter. As used herein the expression "and/or" includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this inventive subject matter belongs.

As discussed above, data centers are changing from application-dedicated IT equipment to managed servers operating in a cloud environment. In a cloud environment, applications can be moved quickly to other groups of servers or different locations in a matter of minutes. Thus, the reduction in time to suspend or relocate the application reduces the need for the traditional UPS and associated backup times. In other words, the reduction in backup time requirement may allow the battery to be reduced in size and, thus, can be incorporated within the IT equipment. For example, one implementation severs having a battery therein. In this implementation, the battery backup does not require any additional space in the rack, but the server is not very dense. Customers that make high density servers may need a dense UPS solution without special server designs.

Accordingly, some embodiments discussed herein provide a high density UPS solution suitable for use in evolving data centers. As will be discussed further below with respect to <FIG>, there are several implementations/form factors that may be used for high density UPS systems in accordance with embodiments discussed herein. Furthermore, in some embodiments, the high density UPS systems may not include any forced air flow from front to back to cooling during a discharge period, i.e. no substantial cooling means may be included in the system. It will be understood that "no substantial means of cooling" can include a small fan or similar device to provide some cooling without departing from the scope of the present inventive subject matter. The absence of any substantial cooling means may allow provision of increasingly dense UPS systems as discussed further herein.

Referring first to <FIG>, a block diagram of a UPS integrated with a power distribution unit (PDU) in accordance with some embodiments will be discussed. As discussed above, in the changing data center environment, five or more minutes of backup time to suspend or relocate the application may not be necessary. For example, in a cloud environment, only a minute or less, for example, <NUM> seconds, of backup time may be needed to switch from one group of servers to a duplicate server group. Furthermore, the nature of the load being backed up by the UPS has also changed, i.e. the load is more tolerant to wide variations of utility voltage because they have power factor corrected power supplies. The combination of these changes has reduced the need for any regulation in the UPS, thus allowing an offline UPS topology to fill the need for backup power in the new data center environment.

As illustrated in <FIG>, some embodiments combine the UPS/battery <NUM> and the PDU <NUM> in a single enclosure. As illustrated, in the embodiments illustrated in <FIG>, the output receptacles <NUM> may be provided at one end of the PDU <NUM> and the UPS/battery <NUM> in accordance with embodiments discussed herein may be provided at the opposite end of the PDU <NUM>. The UPS/battery <NUM> may support its full load for about <NUM> seconds to no more than about a minute. In these embodiments, the UPS/battery <NUM> may be 3kW modules. The use of a fan may be limited and thermal mass may be the dominate temperature control for the semiconductor switches.

IT racks with provision to mount electronic chassis are commonly used in telecommunications and computer networking applications. A typical data center, for example, may include multiple racks in which equipment chassis, e.g., servers, storage units, power supplies and the like, are inserted and mounted. The amount of space a piece of equipment occupies in the IT rack can be expressed in "U" units, which is a unit of measure equal to <NUM>. The PDU <NUM> including the receptacles <NUM>, the UPS/battery <NUM> and various other circuitry not shown in <FIG> may be installed in IT racks in zero-U format, i.e. not occupying any space on the IT racks. However, due to the battery <NUM> and electronics (not shown) included in the combined PDU/UPS illustrated in <FIG>, this implementation may have a significantly larger cross section than a conventional PDU, which may make the configuration illustrated in <FIG> less desirable. Furthermore, typically PDUs are placed in the rear of the IT rack where the temperature is typically higher. Thus, placing the combination PDU/UPS in this position may cause the battery to experience a very short operational life.

Referring now to <FIG>, a block diagram illustrating UPS systems in accordance with some embodiments of the present inventive subject matter will be discussed. As illustrated in <FIG>, the UPS system includes a UPS/battery module <NUM> and one or more PDU/receptacles 215A through 215D including one or more individual receptacles <NUM> thereon. As illustrated, the UPS and battery are provided in a first enclosure <NUM> and the output receptacles 215A through 215D are provided in a second enclosure 215A through 215D, separate from the first enclosure <NUM>.

It will be understood that although four output receptacles/PDUs 215A through 215D are illustrated in <FIG>, embodiments of the present inventive subject matter are not limited to this configuration. More or less than four receptacles 215A through 215D may be provided without departing from the scope of the present invention subject matter.

The output receptacles 215A through 215D can be mounted in the traditional zero-U space of the IT racks. The output receptacles 215A through 215D will have a smaller cross section than embodiments discussed above with respect to <FIG> as the UPS and battery are provided in a separate enclosure <NUM>. In some embodiments, the PDUs 215A through 215D illustrated in <FIG> may be standard/conventional PDUs/output receptacles, which occupy zero-U space in the rear of the IT rack.

Although some embodiments are discussed herein as occupying a certain amount of space in the IT racks, embodiments of the present inventive subject matter are not limited to this configuration. For example, embodiments discussed herein can occupy more or less space than discussed without departing from the scope of the subject matter discussed herein.

As illustrated in <FIG>, the UPS and battery enclosure <NUM> may include one or more UPS 480A-480D and battery 485A-485D pairs, each having an associated PDU cord <NUM> and utility cord <NUM>. The UPS and battery enclosure <NUM> may be mounted in a 2U chassis, i. e, the UPS and battery enclosure <NUM> occupies 2U of space in the IT racks. The UPS 480A-480D in accordance with some embodiments may be a 3kVA UPS. The 3KVa UPS and the associated battery may only occupy one quarter of the IT rack width, allowing up to four UPS/battery pairs to fit in a 2U IT rack enclosure <NUM> as illustrated in <FIG>. Thus, combined the four UPS/battery pairs provide a 12kW UPS having about <NUM> seconds of battery in 2U IT rack space. The individual 3kVA UPS modules 480A-480D may or may not be interconnected without departing from the scope of embodiments discussed herein.

Although embodiments of the present invention illustrated in <FIG> include four UPS/battery pairs in the enclosure <NUM>, it will be understood that embodiments of the present inventive subject matter are not limited to this configuration. For example, more or less than four pairs may be included in the enclosure <NUM> without departing from the scope of embodiments discussed herein. It will be understood that if more than four pairs are included in the enclosure <NUM>, the enclosure may occupy more than the 2U of rack space discussed above.

As further illustrated in <FIG>, in some embodiments, the battery 485A-485D is placed facing toward the input side of the enclosure <NUM> where it is cooler to preserve operational life of the battery and the UPS 480A-480D is provided in the rear of the enclosure <NUM>.

Referring again to <FIG>, a cord <NUM> is attached to the UPS enclosure <NUM> and the receptacles/PDUs 215A through 215D are plugged into the UPS enclosure <NUM>. The UPS/battery enclosure <NUM> may also include a plurality of inputs for power from the utility <NUM> as shown.

Referring now to <FIG>, a UPS system in accordance with some embodiments will be discussed. As illustrated in <FIG>, the UPS system includes a UPS/battery enclosure <NUM> and at least one PDU/receptacle 315A' through 315D'. The UPS/battery module <NUM> and the PDUs 315A' through 315D' including one or more receptacles <NUM> are provided in separate enclosures as shown. <FIG> illustrates the PDUs 315A' through 315D' in detail. As illustrated therein, an input cord <NUM>/<NUM> is attached to each of the PDUs 515A' through 515D' and each PDU enclosure 515A' through 515D' includes a transfer relay <NUM> therein.

Referring again to <FIG>, the input cord <NUM> is used to connect the PDUs 315A' through 315D' to the utility power. As shown, similar to embodiments illustrated in <FIG>, the UPS and battery module <NUM> is attached to the PDUs 315A' through 315D' using a cord <NUM>. Since the PDUs 315A' through 315D' are directly attached to the utility power using the input cord <NUM>, the UPS and/or battery in enclosure <NUM> may be replaced without interruption of power to the load connected to the output receptacles of the PDUs 315A' through 315D'. Thus, the modified PDUs 315A' through 315D' provide a "power pass" PDU that allows UPS and battery servicing without load interruption.

As discussed above, some embodiments of discussed above with respect to <FIG> provide a UPS associated with a battery that will provide a minute or less, for example, <NUM> seconds, of backup time that may be needed to switch from one group of servers to a duplicate server group. Embodiments of the UPS, PDUs and systems discussed above may provide five times more density over existing systems and products.

Claim 1:
A uninterruptible power supply, UPS, system comprising:
a first enclosure (<NUM>; <NUM>; <NUM>) configured to be installed in an information technology, IT, rack;
a second enclosure (215A-D; 315A'-D'; 515A'-D') configured to be installed in the IT rack;
wherein the second enclosure (215A-D; 315A'-D'; 515A'-D') is separate from the first enclosure (<NUM>; <NUM>; <NUM>);
at least one uninterruptible power supply, UPS, (480A-D) positioned in the first enclosure (<NUM>; <NUM>; <NUM>); and
a battery (485A-D) associated with the at least one UPS (480A-D) and positioned in the first enclosure (<NUM>; <NUM>; <NUM>);
wherein the at least one UPS (480A-D) and the associated battery (485A-D) are configured to provide at least thirty seconds and no more than one minute of backup power to a load connected thereto;
wherein the first enclosure (<NUM>; <NUM>; <NUM>') does not contain any means for cooling; and
wherein the first enclosure (<NUM>; <NUM>; <NUM>) is configured to be connected to at least one power distribution unit, PDU, (215A-D; 315A'-D'; 515A'-D') the at least one PDU (215A-D; 315A'-D'; 515A'-D') being positioned in the second enclosure (215A-D; 315A'-D'; 515A'-D').