Method for centralized voltage control and current balancing for parallel operation of power supply equipment

The authors have developed large-capacity power supply equipment consisting of a master and slave modules interconnected simply. Setting the master module voltage enables voltage to be set for all modules. Each module's current is monitored and any unbalanced current is locally fed back and corrected to maintain balanced current between the component modules. A feature of this power supply equipment is its reliability during parallel redundant operation; reliability is maintained when the master module fails and the output voltage remains accurate when the slave module fails. This method was used for 5 V, 150 to 600 A power supply module designs.<>