POWER UNIT

• Main Authors: YANASE TAKAMASA, ISHIZONE NOBORU, IWASAKI FUMIHARU, OZAKI TORU, YUZURIHARA KAZUTAKA
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 20.10.2011
• Subjects: BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS OR SYSTEMS FOR SUPPLYING OR DISTRIBUTINGELECTRIC POWER; CONVERSION OR DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRIC POWER; ELECTRICITY; GENERATION; PROCESSES OR MEANS, e.g. BATTERIES, FOR THE DIRECT CONVERSIONOF CHEMICAL INTO ELECTRICAL ENERGY; SYSTEMS FOR STORING ELECTRIC ENERGY

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a power unit avoiding occurrence of noise when an inductor current reaches a discontinuous mode at the operation of a voltage conversion unit, and eliminating an adverse influence to other pieces of electronic equipment by EMI.SOLUTION: The power unit includes a first power supply path for supplying an output from a generator to a load via a voltage conversion unit including an inductor, a second power supply path for supplying an output from an energy storage unit to the load without going through the voltage conversion unit, a current detection unit, and a control unit for switching between the first power supply path and the second power supply path. The current detection unit detects an inductor current flowing in the inductor, and the control unit switches to the first power supply path when the current detection unit does not detect the inductor current not more than zero within a switching period, and switches to the second power supply path when the current detection unit detects the inductor current not more than zero within the switching period.