US 11,715,948 B2
Fault-tolerant power distribution in a vehicle
James Perkinson, Winchester, MA (US); Andrew S. Babel, Somerville, MA (US); and Robert J. Atmur, Whittier, CA (US)
Assigned to THE BOEING COMPANY, Arlington, VA (US)
Filed by Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation, a subsidiary of The Boeing Company, Manassas, VA (US)
Filed on Nov. 18, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/455,612.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/147,535, filed on Feb. 9, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2022/0255316 A1, Aug. 11, 2022
Int. Cl. H02J 1/12 (2006.01); B64D 27/24 (2006.01)
CPC H02J 1/12 (2013.01) [B64D 27/24 (2013.01); B60L 2200/10 (2013.01); B64D 2221/00 (2013.01); H02J 2310/44 (2020.01)] 32 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A vehicle comprising:
a basic structure; and coupled to the basic structure,
a plurality of power sources;
a propulsion system including a plurality of electric motors configured to power a plurality of propulsors to generate propulsive forces that cause the vehicle to move; and
power distribution circuitry configured to deliver direct current (DC) electric power from the plurality of power sources to the plurality of electric motors, the power distribution circuitry including a plurality of DC-to-DC converter assemblies configured to input the DC electric power from the plurality of power sources and deliver voltage-regulated outputs to the plurality of electric motors, a DC-to-DC converter assembly operatively coupled to multiple ones of the plurality of power sources and multiple ones of the plurality of electric motors, and the DC-to-DC converter assembly including a multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) transformer with a single transformer core.