Tim N9PUZ wrote:
> Does anyone have recent experience with receiving a hardware or
> process patent? I was curious how long it took from initial
> application to issue. An attorney we know said recently that quite a
> few are stretching out to 4-5 years or more.

My last patent that has gone all the way thru the process took about 3 years
from first filing to issue (hardware for spacial subdivision to accellerate
ray tracing).  I have another patent currently about 11 months since first
filing and haven't heard anything other than the usual confirmations that
the paperwork was received.

By the way, Dave Tweed is the other co-inventor on this one, which has to do
with controlling switching power supplies, including PFC, without ever
measuring current.  Digital computation is used to infer current from other
measurements.  We can do full power factor corrected input by only measuring
the input and output voltages and then doing some computation in a micro.
Another cool part is that similar digital computation can be applied to
regulate the output voltage of a PFC supply more tightly than the
traditional approach that just low pass filters the output control response
to not defeat the PFC function.  This means we can replace large and
expensive electronics like bulk capacitors and current senses with ever
cheaper computational power.

The proof of concept prototype used an early 30F2010.


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