| US 6,246,219 C1 (7023rd) | ||
| STRING SWITCHING APPARATUS AND ASSOCIATED METHOD FOR CONTROLLABLY CONNECTING THE OUTPUT OF A SOLAR ARRAY STRING TO A RESPECTIVE POWER BUS | ||
| Thomas Henry Lynch, Chatsworth, Calif.; Robert Kezerian Wilde, Thousand Oaks, Calif.; John Keith Branom, Newbury Park, Calif., and James Allen Hartung, West Hills, Calif., assignors to The Boeing Company, Seattle, Wash. | ||
| Reexamination Request No. 90/007,915, Feb. 7, 2006. | ||
| Reexamination Certificate for Patent 6,246,219, issued Jun. 12, 2001, Appl. No. 535,391, Mar. 24, 2000. | ||
| Int. Cl. G05F 3/16 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 323—223 |
| AS A RESULT OF REEXAMINATION, IT HAS BEEN DETERMINED THAT: |
| Claims 1-3 are cancelled. |
| Claims 4, 5, 7, 9 and 10 are determined to be patentable as amended. |
| Claims 6, 8 and 11-15, dependent on an amended claim, are determined to be patentable. |
| New claims 16-18 are added and detemined to be patentable. |
| 4. A string switching apparatus [according to claim 3 further] for controllably connecting a plurality of solar array strings to one of an output power bus and an auxiliary power bus, the string switching apparatus comprising: a plurality of shunt regulators electrically connected in parallel with respective solar array strings, each shunt regulator capable of alternately shunting an output of the respective solar array string and delivering the output of the respective solar array string to one of the output power bus and the auxiliary power bus;
a plurality of coupling switches electrically connected between respective solar array strings and one of the output power bus and the auxiliary power bus, each coupling switch capable of switching between an on state in which an entire, unshunted output of the respective solar array string is delivered to the respective power bus and an off state in which the entire, unshunted output of the respective solar array string is directed to the other power bus such that the entire, unshunted output of the respective solar array string is directed to only one power bus at a time;
a controller for controlling said plurality of shunt regulators and said plurality of coupling switches to thereby control the delivery of power to both the output power bus and the auxiliary power bus;
a plurality of first drive circuits associated with respective coupling switches and responsive to said controller, wherein each first drive circuit controllably switches the respective coupling switch between on and off states in response to commands from said controller;
a plurality of second drive circuits associated with respective shunt regulators and responsive to said controller, wherein each second drive circuit controllably switches the respective shunt regulator between an on state in which the output of the respective solar array string is shunted and an off state in which the output of the respective solar array string is delivered to one of the output power bus and the auxiliary power bus in response to commands from said controller; and
a programmable logic array that includes said plurality of first and second drive circuits for controlling said coupling switches and said shunt regulators, respectively, in response to commands from said controller.
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