Patent Document

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present application is directed toward the field of power rectification and specifically toward a field effect transistor (FET) shunt regulator for use with a permanent magnet alternator (PMA). 
     Machines for creating multiphase alternating current (AC) electrical power are well known in the art, as are methods for converting the AC electrical power into direct current (DC) electrical power for use with applications requiring DC power. Often when converting from AC to DC, a higher DC voltage is generated than can be handled by the DC load. When this occurs a shunt regulator is used to reduce the power seen by the load. 
     A shunt regulator operates by “shunting” a portion of the AC current to a neutral line. This short circuits out the rectifier portion during a portion of the period of the AC current. A typical shunt regulator will alternate between shunting and not shunting at a high enough frequency that a response time of a DC rectifier renders an approximately constant DC output power at the desired level. 
     One standard shunt regulator design utilized in the art is an FET shunt. An FET shunt uses FET&#39;s to create a short circuit from a phase voltage line connected to the source node of the FET to a neutral line connected to the drain node of the FET. The short circuit is created when the FET is turned on via a control signal thereby connecting the source and drain nodes in a virtually unimpeded manner. 
     When an FET shunt such as the one described above is utilized with a PMA there is necessarily a return current that must return to the PMA in order to form a complete circuit. While the FET shunt is on (aka shunting) the connection between the source and drain provides unimpeded access across the FET for return current from the neutral line. However, when the FET shunt is off there is no connection between the source and drain and the current must return through a different path. In a typical design in the art the current will return across a body-drain connection in the FET. The connection is referred to as a body-drain diode. The body-drain diode connection acts in a similar manner as a diode and typically has a voltage drop of around 1.4V across it. This voltage drop causes power dissipation within the FET resulting in a lower efficiency for the shunt regulator as well as reducing the lifespan of the FET itself. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Disclosed is a shunt regulator for a multiphase permanent magnet alternator (PMA). The shunt regulator has a rectifier capable of converting AC power from the multiphase PMA into DC power. The shunt regulator also has a field effect transistor (FET) shunt for each phase of the multiphase PMA. 
     The shunt regulator has a controller capable of controlling the FET shunts. Each of the FET shunts can redirect power to neutral when a control input is received. Additionally, each FET shunt has a logical OR gate connected to its control input which is capable of turning on the FET shunt when a control signal from the controller indicates that the FET shunt should be on or when the phase voltage connected to the FET shunt is negative. Each logical OR gate accepts inputs from the controller and from a comparator. 
     These and other features of the present invention can be best understood from the following specification and drawings, the following of which is a brief description. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  illustrates an example shunt regulator connected to a three phase AC power source and a DC load. 
         FIG. 2  illustrates example control circuitry for a single phase of a shunt regulator where the FET shunt utilizes one FET. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
       FIG. 1  illustrates an example FET shunt regulator where the FET shunts  110  are controlled to prevent return current from passing through the FET shunt and thereby dissipating power in the body drain diode mode of an FET. The example of  FIG. 1  illustrates a three phase power source  100  (such as a permanent magnet alternator, PMA) having phases A, B, and C. Each phase of the PMA  100  is connected to a drain node  112  of an FET shunt  110  and to a DC rectifier  120  which is capable of rectifying AC power and outputting DC power to a DC load  130 . The FET shunts  110  each have a FET control input node  116 . A source node  114  of the FET shunt  110  is connected to a neutral line. 
     The FET shunt control input node  116  is connected to the output of a logical OR gate  118 . The logical OR gate  118  accepts two control signal inputs and, whenever either of the control signal inputs indicates that the FET shunt  110  should be turned on, the logical OR gate  118  outputs a control signal turning the FET shunt  110  on. The logical OR gate accepts a pulse width modulated (PWM) control signal input from a PWM controller  122 . The PWM controller  122  is connected to a first logical OR gate  118  input  126  on each phase and outputs an identical signal to each FET shunt  110 . The identical signals ensure that whenever the PWM controller  122  indicates that the FET shunts  110  should be turned on, each FET shunt  110  is activated simultaneously. 
     Additionally connected to each logical OR gate  118  is a comparator  124  output. The comparator  124  has an input which is connected to the corresponding phase of the AC power source  100 , and varies its output based on whether the phase voltage is positive or negative. 
     The pulse width modulation controller  122  of  FIG. 1  additionally has a feedback input  128 . The feedback input  128  accepts a measurement of the DC rectifier output voltage  132  and allows the PWM controller  122  to determine, based on the rectifier  120  output voltage, if the FET shunts  110  need to be utilized. 
       FIG. 2  illustrates an example FET shunt  110  for one phase using a single FET  200 . In the example of  FIGS. 1 and 2  the comparator  124  is capable of examining the AC phase input and determining if the AC phase input voltage is positive or negative. If the AC phase voltage is negative the comparator  124  outputs a control signal indicating that the FET shunt  110  should be turned on. In this way the FET shunt  110  will be activated on each phase whenever the AC phase voltage is negative or there is a PWM control signal turning the FET shunt  110  on. 
     In the example of  FIG. 2  a reverse current flow across a body drain diode of an FET  200  causes a certain amount of power dissipation depending on the specific type and design of the FET  200 . Most standard FET&#39;s have a body-drain diode drop of about 1.4V (for example) as current is traveling across them. A source-drain voltage drop (as would occur if the FET  200  were turned on) is significantly lower than 1.4V and consequently does not dissipate as much power. By activating the FET  200  when there is a reverse current, the system returns power to the AC power source  100  through a source-drain connection on the FET  200  instead of through the body-drain diode connection of the FET  200 . This allows the system to see a significant increase in efficiency as well as increasing the life-span of the FET  200 . 
     In normal operation, a design similar to  FIG. 1  using a three phase PMA  100  and where the PWM control signal is connected directly to an FET shunt  110  at input node  116 , a shunting operation will be performed in order to maintain an adequate DC out power at node  132 . By way of example, if the DC load can only handle two amps of DC current, and the DC rectifier  120  would output three amps of DC current if it converted all of the AC power from the PMA  100 , one amp of the current needs to be directed elsewhere. The PWM controller  122  solves this by turning the FET shunts  110  on for ⅓ of the time and off for ⅔ of the time at a high enough frequency to have the DC rectifier output a steady 2 amps of DC current. 
     The switching on and off of the FET shunt results in two current flow paths. While the FET shunts  110  are turned off (i.e. there is no source-drain current flow in the FET  200 ) current will flow from at least one of the phases to the rectifier  120 , and from the rectifier  120  to the remainder of the phases. The current flow traveling from the rectifier  120  to the phases is then returned to the PMA  100 . When this occurs while the FET shunts  110  are turned off the current must travel through a body-drain region of the FET  200  which operates as a body-drain diode. When current travels through an FET operating in body-drain diode mode the current flow encounters a voltage drop thereby dissipating a portion of the power that could be returned to the PMA. 
     While the FET shunts  110  are turned on by the PWM controller  122 , the current will still need a return path to the PMA  100 , however, since the FET  200  is turned on the current can travel through a source-drain connection of the FET  200 . The source-drain connection of the FET  200  allows the return current to flow virtually unimpeded resulting in a significant increase in efficiency while the FET shunts  110  are on. 
     In order to realize the same efficiency gain while the FET shunts  110  are turned off the logical OR gate  118  is added. The logical OR gate  118  turns on the FET shunt  100  whenever it receives a signal from the PWM controller  122 . Additionally, since a logical OR will have an output whenever either or both of the inputs  126 ,  134  have a signal indicating that the FET shunt  110  should be turned on, whenever the comparator  124  outputs a FET shunt control signal, the FET shunt  110  will be turned on. 
     The comparator  124  can be any stock comparator which is capable of outputting a signal whenever the phase voltage is negative, and not outputting a signal whenever the phase voltage is positive. Since a phase will have a return current on it whenever the phase voltage is negative, the comparator will turn on the FET shunt whenever there is a return current on the corresponding phase. The shunt regulator can then realize the efficiency which it has during shunting, for its return current path when it is not shunting without sacrificing performance. 
     It is known that the above disclosed system could be modified to operate with any number of phases and still fall within this disclosure. 
     Although an example embodiment has been disclosed, a worker of ordinary skill in this art would recognize that certain modifications would come within the scope of this disclosure. For that reason, the following claims should be studied to determine the true scope and content of this invention.

Technology Category: h