ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,334,294, issued on June 17, was assigned to TMEIC Corp. (Chuo-ku, Japan).

"Power supply device" was invented by Yousuke Hayashi (Chuo-ku, Japan), Xiaochen Zhang (Chuo-ku, Japan) and Haruyoshi Mori (Chuo-ku, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An AC switch that includes a semiconductor switch and a snubber circuit connected in parallel between a first terminal connected to an AC power supply via a circuit breaker and a second terminal connected to a load. The power converter is connected between a power storage device and the second terminal. The current detector detects a current flowing through the AC switch. When the AC power supply i...