Innovative inrush current preventer for a long service life and less damage to electronic devices

Abstract

High inrush currents are a potential risk for electrical consumers. Depending on the intensity, the inrush currents can cause immense damage to electrical components or even destroy them completely. There is also a risk of scorching and fire, and toxic gas formation is possible. The invention prevents dangerous inrush currents in a particularly clever way using a small circuit with commercially available components. This can significantly extend the service life of electrical devices.

background

Various circuits for limiting the inrush current are known in practice. For example, it is possible to connect a resistor in series to the consumer, to implement a thermistor or to use a phase cut-off control. All these options have various disadvantages, such as heat losses, reduction of the service life of the devices, insufficient efficiency and the load on the power grid when switching on

Innovation / Solution

The invention offers a particularly elegant solution for reducing the inrush currents of electrical devices to such an extent that a current surge is (completely) avoided. Resulting damage is thus reduced/avoided. In addition, the efficiency of power supply units with a connected load can be increased and at the same time the no-load consumption of power supply units can be reduced. With the invention, protection solutions can be realized by means of conventional, inexpensive standard components for small electrical devices up to high-quality large systems (e.g. chargers, smartphones, electric cars, PV systems) without accepting the previous disadvantages. A circuit is used that can be individually integrated into the devices to be protected. This has already been implemented and successfully tested in a prototype.

Benefits

fields of application

Electrical engineering, in particular power electronics and inrush current limiters