• Home
  • News
  • Patent Awarded to Khaligh for Digital Control...

News Story

Patent Awarded to Khaligh for Digital Control of Power Converters

ECE Assistant Professor Alireza Khaligh has been awarded U.S. Patent # 8,089, 254, titled, “Digital Control of Power Converters”.  The patent was issued on January 3, 2012.

This invention deals with a method of controlling DC/DC converters to regulate output voltage from an input voltage source that varies from a fully charged voltage to a discharged voltage. The method introduced improves the dynamic response of the converter during transients by switching between different converter topologies to spread out voltage spikes, which are an inevitable result of transients. The invention also can improve the efficiency of the DC/DC converter by replacing higher loss modes with combination modes.

The research from which this methodology conceptualized was a project aimed to control a non-inverting back-boost converter for digital cameras. The proposed idea was extended to control integrated-chargers for next generation plug-in electric vehicles, which was supported by the National Science Foundation.

Having digital control of the power converter when energizing both low-power devices, like digital cameras or cell phones, and medium-level power devices such as plug-in electric vehicles (PEV) and solar-powered systems means the devices will be more efficient and remain powered longer for wide ranges of battery’s state-of-charge.

For more information, please visit the U.S. patent website.


Published February 17, 2012