Researchers Submit Patent Application, "Bi-Directional Electric Energy Meter", for Approval (USPTO 20160187400)
By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Energy Weekly News -- From Washington, D.C., VerticalNews journalists report that a patent application by the inventors JI, Rujun (Shanghai, CN); DENG, Cong (Nanjing, CN), filed on April 28, 2015, was made available online on July 7, 2016.
No assignee for this patent application has been made.
News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: "An electric energy meter is used to measure how much electrical energy a load has consumed from a source. Generally, the electric energy meter is coupled to an electricity network that connects between the load and source."
As a supplement to the background information on this patent application, VerticalNews correspondents also obtained the inventors' summary information for this patent application: "Systems and methods to measure electric energy using the invented electric energy meter are disclosed herein. In an embodiment, an electric energy meter for a poly-phase electricity network includes a power transformer having a primary side and a secondary side, a first analog front end (AFE) unit is coupled to the secondary side of the power transformer, and a microcontroller coupled to the primary side of the power transformer. The first AFE unit is to be coupled to a first phase of the poly-phase electricity network. The microcontroller is configured to transmit a digitized request signal to, and to receive a measurement signal from, the first AFE unit via the power transformer. More specifically, the first AFE unit, upon receiving the digitized request signal, is to extract information from the digitized request signal.
"In another embodiment, an apparatus for a poly-phase electricity network includes a power transformer having a primary side and a secondary side, a first plurality of analog front end (AFE) units coupled to the secondary side of the power transformer, a second plurality of AFE units coupled to the secondary side of the power transformer, and a microcontroller coupled to the primary side of the power transformer. More specifically, each of the first plurality of AFE units is to be coupled to a separate phase of the poly-phase electrical distribution and configured to measure current for that particular phase. Each of the second AFE units is to be coupled to a separate phase of the poly-phase electricity network and configured to measure voltage for that particular phase. The microcontroller is configured to transmit a digitized request signal to each of the first and second AFE units and to receive measurement data from the first and second AFE units via the power transformer. One of the first plurality of AFE units and one of the second plurality of AFE units are to be coupled to each phase.
"Yet in another embodiment, a method includes transmitting, by a microcontroller coupled to a primary side of a power transformer, a digitized request signal to a plurality of analog front end (AFE) units, wherein each AFE unit is coupled between a secondary side of the power transformer and one phase of poly-phase electricity network, upon receiving the digitized request signal, activating the plurality of AFE units, measuring, by a first AFE unit, a first phase of current of a poly-phase electrical distribution, measuring, by a second AFE unit, the first phase of voltage of the poly-phase electrical distribution, and transmitting, by the first and second AFE units, the measured current and voltage for the first phase of the poly-phase electrical distribution to the microcontroller.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
"For a detailed description of exemplary embodiments of the invention, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings in which:
"FIG. 1 shows a block diagram to illustrate an electric energy meter coupled to a poly-phase electricity network in accordance with various embodiments;
"FIG. 2 shows an example to further illustrate an analog front end (AFE) unit in accordance with various embodiments;
"FIG. 3 shows an example to illustrate an electric energy meter coupled to a single-phase electricity network in accordance with various embodiments; and
"FIG. 4 shows a flow chart illustrating a method to measure electric energy using the disclosed electric energy meter in accordance with various embodiments."
For additional information on this patent application, see: JI, Rujun; DENG, Cong. Bi-Directional Electric Energy Meter. Filed April 28, 2015 and posted July 7, 2016. Patent URL: http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.html&r=5170&p=104&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&S1=20160630.PD.&OS=PD/20160630&RS=PD/20160630
Keywords for this news article include: Patents, Electronics, Electric Energy, Microcontroller.
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