A benistor is a controllable electron valve capable to independently manage the amount of voltage and current between generator and load in an electrical circuit. The benistor is able to modulate the value of any or all of following parameters delivered to a load: maximum voltage, effective voltage, average voltage, maximum current, effective current, or average current. The benistor achieves this modulation by means of several voltage and current control terminals. The benistor’s capability to operate in linear, switching, or self-switching mode of operation, controlling the voltage amount on the vertical axis and the current amount on the horizontal axis (see oscilloscope waveforms), makes it an extremely versatile control device for power management applications, especially for circuits involving non-linear loads, such as LED (Light Emitting Diode) power converters (drivers).
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History
The benistor was invented in 1995 by Beniamin Acatrinei, a Romanian born inventor living in Silicon Valley, California. Acatrinei’s intention was to improve upon the thyristor or silicon controlled rectifier (SCR) which has certain limitations. The benistor concept was initially published in two US patents issued in 1997 and 1999. The benistor received significant recognition for its originality and versatility, but there have been limited product applications to date. However, the LED Lighting power management market is an excellent application for the benistor, because LEDs are non-linear devices that require constant current in a limited maximum voltage supply range. Providing constant current in a limited maximum voltage range is necessary to achieve minimum dissipation and maximum efficiency, and is a technical challenge which is an ideal application for benistor.
Importance
The benistor was described in a cover story in Electronic Design Magazine by Ashok Bindra, in June 1997, as “the fourth element”, meaning “the fourth electron valve” to be invented. The three previously invented electron valves are the vacuum tube, the transistor, and the thyristor. The importance of the benistor consists in its capability to control, independently, the amount of voltage and current in an electrical generator-load circuit, without challenging the Ohm’s law, as some people would question by learning there is a device featuring such control capability. The name Benistor is derived from “blockade of electric network and transistor”.
Comparison with other devices
The vacuum tube, invented in about 1910, was the first electron valve to control power to a load. The transistor, invented in 1947, was smaller, generated less heat, and ran on lower voltages. The thyristor (or silicon-controlled rectifier), invented in about 1950, addressed current-control requirements at higher power ranges, where conventional transistors reach limits related to heat dissipation.
Tubes are essentially obsolete for most applications, while the transistors and thyristors have significant limitations including that they cannot simultaneously control the maximum voltage, the effective voltage, and the maximum current of a non-linear load in a Direct AC (rectified but unfiltered) supply circuit. The benistor overcomes these shortcomings because, unlike the transistor and thyristor, it has separate control terminals for simultaneously managing the amount of current, maximum voltage, and effective voltage in an AC generator-load circuit, by means of either linear switching and/or self-switching mode of operations.