US Patent Issued to Murata Manufacturing on Aug. 5 for "Circuits and methods to startup and shutdown multi-level converters" (New Hampshire, California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,381,478, issued on Aug. 5, was assigned to Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (Kyoto, Japan).

"Circuits and methods to startup and shutdown multi-level converters" was invented by Gary Chunshien Wu (San Diego) and Gregory Szczeszynski (Nashua, N.H.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A circuit suitable for use with a multi-level power converter cell that (1) charges boot capacitors at startup to a sufficient level to power level shifters and drivers that control the power switches within the cell, (2) pre-charges each fly capacitor to a target voltage, (3) provides a shut-down and/or a standby mode of operation that enables a quick re-start of oper...