|Número de publicación||US7651553 B2|
|Tipo de publicación||Concesión|
|Número de solicitud||US 11/540,454|
|Fecha de publicación||26 Ene 2010|
|Fecha de prioridad||29 Sep 2005|
|También publicado como||EP1928608A2, EP1928608A4, US20070068387, WO2007038778A2, WO2007038778A3|
|Número de publicación||11540454, 540454, US 7651553 B2, US 7651553B2, US-B2-7651553, US7651553 B2, US7651553B2|
|Inventores||Timothy Allen Pletcher, Steven Warshawsky|
|Cesionario original||Sarnoff Corporation|
|Exportar cita||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Citas de patentes (27), Otras citas (1), Citada por (2), Clasificaciones (13), Eventos legales (4)|
|Enlaces externos: USPTO, Cesión de USPTO, Espacenet|
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/722,078 filed Sep. 29, 2005, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The invention relates generally to electrostatic particle collection systems, and more specifically to methods for fabricating ballast circuits for multi-electrode corona discharge arrays in electrostatic particulate collection systems.
Highly efficient, low power particle collection devices have been demonstrated using multiple electrode corona discharge arrays. The advantages of multiple electrode corona discharge arrays for particle collection are described in “System and Method for Spatially Selective Particulate Deposition And Enhanced Particulate Deposition Efficiency”, filed Apr. 18, 2006, having an application Ser. No. 11/405,787, issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,261,764, and in “Corona Charging Device and Methods”, filed Mar. 11, 2003 having an application Ser. No. 10/386,252, issued as U.S. Pat No. 7,130,178, and in “Method And Apparatus for Concentrated Airborne Particle Collection”, filed Jun. 24, 2003, having an application Ser. No. 10/603,119 issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,062,982 all of which are herein incorporated by reference.
A key circuit element needed for the proper operation of multiple electrode corona discharge arrays is a resistor electrically connected in series between the high voltage DC power supply and each corona electrode. This resistor is known as a ballast resistor. The main function of the ballast resistor is to limit the current through any individual corona electrode when the plasma is initiated and while operating at steady state.
The voltage at which an electrical discharge is initiated is known to vary for each corona electrode in a multiple electrode system. Furthermore, the resistance of the air following the initial electrical discharge lowers dramatically such that the voltage needed to sustain the discharge is significantly lower than the initial breakdown voltage. Given these factors, it is therefore possible to deliver all electrical power to the corona discharge through a single or small number of electrodes. The resulting non-uniform plasma would defeat the primary benefits of a multiple electrode corona discharge system; that is, uniformity of electric field and charge density in the particle collection zone.
Providing a ballast resistor for each corona electrode solves the plasma non-uniformity problem by limiting the power delivered to any single corona electrode. Power through a single electrode is limited by lowering the electrode voltage as more current passes through the ballast resistor to the electrode. The ballasting effect allows the power supply voltage to adjust to a voltage where other electrodes will initiate and sustain continuous plasma.
This ballasting function places a number of electrical requirements onto the ballast resistor. The two key requirements are voltage breakdown between the resistor terminals and the resistance value. These requirements vary with electrode geometry and plasma power density. The value for the voltage breakdown of the ballast resistor used for the electrostatic radial geometry particle concentrator at is typically 9 kV. The resistance value for each of the ballast resistor used for this concentrator is 2 Gohm.
Resistors having the above characteristics are produced commercially. However, the breakdown and resistance values are not usually in high demand for most electrical applications. As a result, these resistors are typically much more expensive than lower voltage, lower value resistors. As an example, a 50V, 100 kohm resistor in a surface mount package can usually be purchased for less than $0.01. The 10 KV, 1 Gohm resistors used in the radial collector are purchased in small quantities for about $1.00. For most commercial and industrial particle collection applications, the number of electrodes needed is typically greater than thirty and less than five hundred. The cost the plastic material needed to produce an equivalent of 108 1 Gohm, 10 kV resistors is about $0.50 yielding a 216× improvement in cost.
Thus, there remains a need in the art for a highly-efficient, geometrically flexible and cost-effective material that provides for the resistive ballasting of multi-corona discharge arrays.
The present invention provides a ballast circuit for an electrostatic particle collection system and the method for fabricating the same. The circuit comprises a conductive plastic material having a first end and a second end, such that the first end is connected to a power source. The circuit also comprises at least one corona electrode protruding from the second end of the conductive plastic material.
In one embodiment, a radial configured ballast circuit for an electrostatic particle collection system comprises a conductive plastic material having an inner surface and an outer surface, such that the outer surface is connected to a power source. The circuit also comprises at least one corona electrode protruding from the inner surface of the conductive plastic material, wherein distance between the inner surface of the conductive plastic material and the corona electrode varies electrical resistance and determines the voltage breakdown of the circuit.
In another embodiment, a planer configured ballast circuit for an electrostatic particle collection system comprises a conductive plastic material having a top surface and a bottom surface such that the top surface is connected to a power source. The circuit also comprises at least one corona electrode protruding from the bottom surface of the conductive plastic material, wherein distance between the top surface of the conductive plastic material and the corona electrode varies electrical resistance and determines the voltage breakdown of the circuit.
As will be described in greater detail below, a conductive plastic material has been shown to meet the requirements for the resistive ballasting of multi-electrode corona discharge arrays. Typical ballast resistor electrical requirements are resistance greater than or equal to 10.sup9 ohm and voltage breakdown of greater than or equal to 10 kV across the terminals. Conductive plastics possess a unique combination of material properties that enable its use for this application. Use of this material will substantially reduce the cost to manufacture multi-electrode corona discharge arrays where a large number (i.e. >10 electrodes) of discharge elements is required.
Furthermore, using a conductive plastic as the resistive element of a multi-electrode ballast circuit enables a large number of circuit designs and geometries that can be used to accommodate the variations of particle collection geometry. A brief description of the multi-electrode ballast circuit for cylindrical and planer configurations are provided herein below with respect to
As discussed above, the schematic shows only four corona electrodes, however, the number of corona electrodes is normally much greater than four. Typical design rules allow a minimum pitch between corona electrodes of approximately 0.1 inch. Additionally, the schematic also shows a single level of corona electrodes, however, multiple levels of corona electrodes may preferably be used for some applications of particle collection.
The key design parameter for the configuration of
Other design parameters preferably include bulk resistivity of the conductive plastic, shape and orientation of power supply connection to plastic and as discussed above, option to insulate power supply connection. Bulk resistivity will preferably range typically between 108 ohm-cm-1010 ohm-cm By varying the bulk resistivity of the conductive plastic, the bulk resistance and the voltage breakdown can be controlled. Higher bulk resistivities will produce higher ballast resistivities given identical geometries. Higher bulk resistivities will also produce higher breakdown voltages across the material. This is due to the fact that most materials have a breakdown voltage that is a nonlinear function of voltage. That is, if the voltage across the material is raised beyond the material's breakdown voltage, the current passing through the device will increase significantly for small changes in voltage, like a diode. Conductive plastics in the bulk resistivity range applicable to this application are primarily the pure plastic with a small amount of conductive doping material. Pure plastics such as acetyl, polycarbonate, and polystyrene have high breakdown voltages. This property is significantly lowered when conductive dopants are added to the pure material. Therefore, higher bulk resistivity materials tend to have higher breakdown voltage properties. Also, by varying penetration depth of power supply contact/connection into the conductive plastic, the bulk resistance can be varied/controlled. The penetration depth of the power supply connection is the distance from the power supply connection to the conductive plastic which is preferably typically greater than 0.1 inch and less than 0.5 inches. As mentioned above, the greater penetration depths produce lower values of ballast resistance. Furthermore, patterning the power supply connection in various shapes and orientations, the bulk resistance of the ballast circuit can preferably be controlled. For example, connecting at multiple points along the perimeter of the plastic material or varying the penetration connection distance and width and/or length of the connection surface can increase or decrease the bulk resistivity.
As discussed above, the schematic shows only twenty-one corona electrodes, however, the number of corona electrodes is normally much greater. Typical design rules allow a minimum pitch between corona electrodes of approximately 0.1 inch. Moreover, the schematic also shows a single level of corona electrodes, however, multiple levels of corona electrodes will be used for some applications of particle collection.
The key design parameters for this configuration is the distance from the top surface 106 c of the conductive plastic 106 to the corona electrode 108 surfaces that will be embedded into the plastic. Similar to the radial configuration described with respect to
Other design parameters include bulk resistivity of plastic, shape and orientation of power supply connection to plastic and as described above option to insulate power supply connection. As described above with respect to the radial configuration in
Although the present invention describes only radial and planer configurations of the ballast circuits, note that other geometrical configurations may also be provided to accommodate the variations of particle collection geometry provided the configuration maintains the constraints required by the electrostatic particle collection device. Even though various embodiments that incorporate the teachings of the present invention have been shown and described in detail herein, those skilled in the art can readily devise many other varied embodiments that still incorporate these teachings without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention.
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|Clasificación de EE.UU.||96/83, 96/97, 96/84, 264/104, 96/95|
|Clasificación cooperativa||B03C2201/10, B03C3/41, B03C3/86, B03C3/68|
|Clasificación europea||B03C3/68, B03C3/86, B03C3/41|
|4 Dic 2006||AS||Assignment|
Owner name: SARNOFF CORPORATION, NEW JERSEY
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:PLETCHER, TIMOTHY ALLEN;WARSHAWSKY, STEVEN;REEL/FRAME:018579/0702
Effective date: 20061030
|6 Sep 2013||REMI||Maintenance fee reminder mailed|
|26 Ene 2014||LAPS||Lapse for failure to pay maintenance fees|
|18 Mar 2014||FP||Expired due to failure to pay maintenance fee|
Effective date: 20140126