Patent ID: 8120300

Claim:
An apparatus for fault tolerant cooling in a redundant power system, the apparatus: comprising: a receiving module that receives power from a common power bus to power one or more pulse-width modulated (PWM) power supply fans, the common power bus receiving power from two or more redundant power supplies, the common power bus powering at least an electronic load and the one or more PWM power supply fans wherein each of the one or more PWM power supply fans cools at least a redundant power supply in which the PWM power supply fan resides and components within an electronic device, the components comprising the electronic load; a detection module that detects a non-functioning redundant power supply; a signal module that receives a fan control signal within a non-functioning redundant power supply wherein the fan control signal transmits pulse-width information and a fan controller of a PWM power supply fan uses the pulse-width information in the fan control signal to generate a pulse-width modulated fan drive signal, the fan drive signal causing the PWM power supply fan to move at a speed corresponding to a duty cycle of the pulse-width modulated signal; and a synchronization module that uses the received fan control signal to synchronize a fan speed of one or more PWM power supply fans within the non-functioning redundant power supply, the fan speed synchronized with at least one fan control signal of a PWM power supply fan within a functioning redundant power supply.