Granted Patent B2

US 12,645,274 · App. 18/497,247 · Granted Jun 2, 2026

Inventors: Moonyoung Kim (Suwon-si, KR); Jeongil Kang (Suwon-si, KR)

Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

G06F1/263G06F1/189H01R13/70H01R25/142

Abstract

Claims (59)

1 . A power supply, comprising:

a plurality of power supply lines respectively configured to transmit power of a plurality of voltages, each of the plurality of power supply lines having a corresponding danger threshold power amount and a corresponding upper-limit threshold power amount;

a power balancing control unit comprising circuitry configured to:

obtain each amount of power usage for each of the plurality of power supply lines and generate a control signal based on each of the obtained amounts of power usages;

determine at least one power supply line among the plurality of power supply lines as a first power supply line by:

for each of the plurality of power supply lines, calculating an amount of available power for that power supply line as a difference between the obtained amount of power usage for that power supply line and the upper-limit threshold power amount for that power supply line; and

comparing the amount of available power for each of the plurality of power supply lines with the amount of available power for the others of the plurality of power supply lines, the amount of available power of the first power supply line being higher than the others of the plurality of power supply lines; and

determine one power supply line among the plurality of power supply lines as a second power supply line, based on a difference between the obtained amount of power usage and the danger threshold power amount for the one power supply line; and

a power balancing unit comprising circuitry configured to: transform, based on the control signal, a voltage of a current drawn from the first power supply line of the plurality of power supply lines and provide the transformed voltage to the second power supply line of the plurality of power supply lines.

2 . The power supply of claim 1 , wherein the power balancing unit comprises:

a first switch unit comprising circuitry configured to be connected to each of the plurality of power supply lines to select one of the first power supply line and the second power supply line,

a second switch unit comprising circuitry configured to be connected to each of the plurality of power supply lines to select another one of the first power supply line and the second power supply line, and

a transformer unit comprising a transformer configured to selectively perform a voltage step-up or a voltage step-down, between the first switch unit and the second switch unit.

3 . The power supply of claim 2 , wherein the power balancing control unit is configured to:

select the first power supply line and the second power supply line, based on the obtained amounts of power usages;

based on a voltage of the first power supply line being higher than a voltage of the second power supply line, generate a first operation control signal to control the first switch unit to select the first power supply line, the second switch unit to select the second power supply line, and the transformer unit to perform the voltage step-down; and

based on a voltage of the first power supply line being lower than the voltage of the second power supply line, generate a second operation control signal to control the first switch unit to select the second power supply line, the second switch unit to select the first power supply line, and the transformer unit to perform the voltage step-up.

4 . The power supply of claim 1 , wherein the power balancing unit is further configured to:

if there are multiple first power supply lines, draw a current from each of the multiple first power supply lines, in a sequential and alternating manner, and perform a voltage step-up or a voltage step-down for each drawn current to provide the resultant voltage to the second power supply line.

5 . The power supply of claim 1 ,

wherein the power balancing unit comprises one or more power balancing modules, and

wherein each of the power balancing modules comprises:

a transformer unit comprising a transformer configured to have one end connected to one power supply line of the plurality of power supply lines and selectively perform a voltage step-up or a voltage step down, and

a switch unit comprising circuitry configured to be connected to another end of the transformer unit at one side and be connected to two or more power supply lines among other power supply lines other than the one power supply line at other side, so as to select one of the two or more power supply lines.

6 . The power supply of claim 1 , further comprising a feeding unit comprising a plurality of electrodes configured to transmit currents of the plurality of voltages obtained from the plurality of power supply lines to outside of the power supply, respectively,

wherein each of the plurality of electrodes comprises an extended portion so that two or more connectors are allowed to be connected thereto at the same time, the extended portion maintaining a specified distance from those of neighboring electrodes.

7 . The power supply of claim 6 , wherein the feeding unit comprises a display unit including display circuitry configured to display information indicating a total amount of power being supplied via the plurality of electrodes.

8 . The power supply of claim 1 , further comprising:

a feeding unit including an insulating member comprising an insulating material having a plurality of grooves, and a plurality of electrodes configured to transmit currents of the plurality of voltages obtained from the plurality of power supply lines to outside of the power supply, respectively;

wherein each of the plurality of grooves extends side by side, while maintaining a specified distance from neighboring grooves; and

wherein at least a portion of each of the plurality of electrodes is disposed in a corresponding groove among the plurality of grooves of the insulating member.

9 . The power supply of claim 8 ,

wherein each of the plurality of grooves of the insulating member comprise side walls and a bottom portion, and

wherein the electrode disposed in the corresponding groove among the plurality of grooves has one of an I-shape, an L-shape, and ⊏-shape.

10 . The power supply of claim 8 ,

wherein the plurality of grooves of the insulating member comprises a plurality of electrode grooves, in which a corresponding portion of each of the plurality of electrodes is disposed, and

wherein the insulating member:

comprises a guide groove configured to guide connection of a connector to the feeding unit, or

includes support configured to support connection of a connector to the electrode, in case of the connector being connected to the electrode, and disposed on one or both outer sides of outermost grooves among the plurality of grooves, or

comprises a material having a rigidity wherein, in case of protruding electrode portion of a connector being inserted into the electrode groove corresponding thereto, a spacing between sidewalls of a neighboring electrode groove of the electrode groove is not substantially changed.

11 . The power supply of claim 10 ,

wherein a plurality of protruding portions provided in the connector are configured to be inserted into respective corresponding grooves of the plurality of grooves of the insulating member, each of the protruding portions including a flat portion having an upper surface and a lower surface, and an electrode portion disposed on at least one surface of the upper surface and the lower surface, and the plurality of protruding portions being arranged such that the flat portions are stacked side by side with a specified interval, and

wherein the electrode portion of one of the plurality of protruding portions of the connector is configured to be electrically connected to the electrode disposed in the corresponding groove, based on selection from the connector.

12 . A method for performing power balancing in a power supply, comprising:

obtaining each amount of power usage from each of a plurality of power supply lines, each of the plurality of power supply lines having a corresponding danger threshold power amount and a corresponding upper-limit threshold power amount;

based on each of the obtained amounts of power usages, determining, among the plurality of power supply lines:

at least one first power supply line to provide current to another power supply line by:

for each of the plurality of power supply lines, calculating an amount of available power for that power supply line as a difference between each obtained amount of power usage for that power supply line and the upper-limit threshold power amount for that power supply line; and

comparing the amount of available power for each of the plurality of power supply lines with the amount of available power for the others of the plurality of power supply lines, the amount of available power of the at least one first power supply line being higher than the others of the plurality of power supply lines; and

a second power supply line to receive current from another power supply line based on a difference between the obtained amount of power usage and the danger threshold power amount for each of the plurality of power supply lines; and

controlling at least a portion of available power from each of the at least one first power supply line to be provided to the second power supply line.

13 . The method of claim 12 ,

wherein the controlling comprises generating a control signal to selectively perform a voltage step-up or a voltage step-down based on a voltage of the first power supply line and a voltage of the second power supply line,

the method further comprising:

drawing a current from the first power supply line,

transforming a voltage of the drawn current, based on the control signal, and

providing a current of the transformed voltage to the second power supply line.

14 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising

if there are multiple first power supply lines, drawing a current from each of the multiple first power supply lines, in a sequential and alternating manner, and performing a voltage step-up or a voltage step-down for each drawn current to provide the resultant voltage to the second power supply line.

Assignments (1)

Priority Claims (1)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (50)