A method for operating a system including a voltage regulating power supply includes sensing a local voltage on a first node of the system and a remote voltage on a second node of the system. The first node and the second node are in a conductive path coupled to a load of the system. The first node is closer to a power stage of the voltage regulating power supply than the second node. The second node is closer to the load than the first node. The method includes detecting a load release event based on the local voltage, the remote voltage, and at least one predetermined threshold value.

A power-control device comprises an energy-import portion and an energy-export portion. The power-control device may additionally include a general processing and power supply circuit providing linear control of the power-control device's production of power to the load. The energy-import portion is coupled between a V.sub.LINE terminal and a load terminal, and is capable of importing energy to the load terminal during a first portion and a third portion of an alternating voltage V.sub.AC waveform. The energy-export portion is coupled between the load terminal and a NEU terminal, and is capable of exporting energy from the load terminal during a second portion and a fourth portion of the alternating voltage V.sub.AC waveform. The first, second, third and fourth portions of the alternating voltage V.sub.AC waveform are equal to a period of the alternating voltage V.sub.AC waveform and respectively are consecutive during the period of the alternating voltage V.sub.AC waveform. The power-control device provides variable power control to the load terminal in response to a variable on/off time of a PWM control signal.

An apparatus is disclosed for adaptive switch driving. In an example aspect, the apparatus includes a switching circuit configured to selectively be in a first state that provides an input voltage as an output voltage, be in a second state that provides a ground voltage as the output voltage, or be in a third state that causes the output voltage to change from the input voltage to the ground voltage according to a slew rate. The third state enables the switching circuit to transition from the first state to the second state. The switching circuit is also configured to adjust the slew rate of the output voltage for the third state responsive to at least one of the following: a change in a magnitude of a direct-current supply voltage or a change in a magnitude of an input current.

A gallium nitride (GaN) transistor-based regulated voltage source has a reference voltage input coupled to a reference voltage. The regulated voltage source also includes an input port and an output port. The regulated voltage source includes a GaN transistor-based voltage regulation path coupling the input port and the output port with at least a GaN regulation transistor with a threshold voltage and that is formed on a substrate. The regulated voltage source also includes a GaN transistor-based voltage compensator having an intermediate GaN transistor that is also formed on the substrate. The GaN transistor-based voltage compensator couples a gate of the GaN regulation transistor to the reference voltage input and introduces a voltage drop between the gate of the GaN regulation transistor and the reference voltage input to compensate for the threshold voltage of the GaN regulation transistor.

A DC-DC converter including voltage and slope regulation and a method of operating the same are provided. Generally, the converter includes a voltage source to supply an output, a switching-circuit coupled to the voltage sources to control a voltage on the output, and a slope-detector coupled to the switching-circuit and the output to detect a slope of a voltage transition between a first and a second voltage. When the detected slope exceeds a predetermined maximum the slope-detector sends a digital signal to the switching-circuit to intermittently pause the voltage transition to limit the slope to less than the maximum. In one embodiment, the voltage source is a charge-pump, and the switching-circuit includes a logic-gate coupled to the slope-detector to turn the charge-pump ON when the detected slope is less than the maximum, and to turn OFF the charge-pump for a time when the slope exceeds the maximum.

A power converter includes: a switching transistor, a transformer, a control circuit; the control circuit is configured to determine a target voltage in a process that the switching transistor is driven to conduct; the target voltage can represent a voltage change of an input terminal of the switching transistor; when the target voltage starts to drop but is higher than a reference voltage, drive a control terminal of the switching transistor with a first driving current; when the target voltage decreases to be lower than the reference voltage, drive the switching transistor with a second driving current; the second driving current is higher than the first driving current; the switching transistor is driven by the first driving current for part or all of the time before entering the Miller plateau stage, and is driven by the second driving current after starting to enter the Miller plateau stage.

An inverter, an inverter system, and a method. The inverter includes an inverter circuit and a controller. When at least one of the following conditions is met, the controller adjusts at least one of parameters including an operating frequency, operating voltage, and operating current of the inverter, to increase a loss of the inverter, where the at least one condition is as follows: an output power of the inverter circuit is lower than a preset power, output current of the inverter circuit is lower than a preset current, operating temperature of the inverter is lower than a preset temperature, or operating humidity of the inverter is higher than a preset humidity. When any one of the foregoing conditions is met, the inverter may increase the operating temperature of the inverter or reduce the operating humidity of the inverter by increasing the loss of the inverter, thereby ensuring inverter operation.

A synchronous rectification control circuit has a turn-on detection circuit. The turn-on detection circuit has a slope detection circuit and a threshold generation circuit. The slope detection circuit generates a slope representation signal representing a falling slope of the detection signal. The threshold generation circuit generates a threshold signal by selecting one of threshold reference signals according to a driving signal. The turn-on detection circuit generates a comparison result signal by comparing the slope representation signal and the threshold signal for controlling the switch state of the synchronous rectification transistor.

A control switch incorporating a 1:2 demultiplexer is used in controlling timing for concurrent switching, break-before-make and make-before-break power multiplexing, and is configurable to link a plurality of the control switches into a control chain to perform sequential charging, sequential discharging, parallel charging, parallel discharging, simultaneous sequential charging and discharging for a plurality of batteries coupled to the control chain in a power system.

A switching method for a half bridge power converter includes at least a pair of power switches in legs of the convertor providing upper and lower branch power switches and first and second gate control circuits for the upper and lower branch power switches. The switching method includes sensing the current derivative in the upper and lower branches during switching of the pair of power switches to provide a first signal and a second signal proportional to the current derivative of the power current in the upper and lower power switches, summing the first and second signals to provide a summed current derivative signal, and adding the summed current derivative signal to the power switch command signal of the first and second gate control circuits causing the summed derivative signals to modulate the gate commutation signals of the gate control circuits.