Sequential Co-Transmission of High-Frequency Power and Data Signals

An approach for sequential transmission of high-frequency (HF) power and data signals over a common HF channel (i.e., co-transmission) is outlined. This is in contrast to the conventional power-line communication, where the power and data co-transmission is simultaneous. Sequential co-transmission avoids data corruption by temporally distributing power and data signals over an HF channel and limiting their overlap. A data-transfer mechanism to realize the sequential co-transmission approach is outlined. Simple transmitter and receiver circuits, synthesized without the use of any analog-filtering circuitry are designed and a modified asynchronous serial-communication-interface protocol is implemented for ensuring the integrity of the transmitted data. The sequential HF power and data co-transmissions are experimentally validated using a closed-loop distributed dc/dc converter operating in switching frequency range of 100 kHz.