Controller and method for a power converter. For example, a controller for a power converter includes: a mode detector configured to determine a mode of operation for the power converter; a first gate driver configured to output a first drive voltage to a first transistor related to a first auxiliary winding coupled to a primary winding, a secondary winding, and a second auxiliary winding; a second gate driver configured to output a second drive voltage to a second transistor related to the primary winding; wherein the first gate driver is further configured to, if the mode of operation satisfies one or more first predetermined conditions, generate the first drive voltage so that the first transistor remains turned off during a switching cycle of the power converter.

In discharging of electric power in a smoothing capacitor arranged between a battery and an inverter provided with three-phase power modules, a control circuit alternately and periodically switches between all-phase upper on control and all-phase lower on control. With a power module in which a current flows in a direction from a motor toward the inverter among the three-phase power modules being defined as a negative current module and a power module in which a current flows in a direction from the inverter toward the motor being defined as a positive current module, during a period during which switching between all-phase lower on control and all-phase upper on control is made, the control circuit performs, for a prescribed time period, discharging processing for setting the negative current module to the lower on state and for setting the positive current module to the upper on state.

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 higher control unit 1 generates a command current i* based on a command value. A model predictive control unit 2 sets a plurality of assumed voltage vectors for each switching cycle of an output voltage, divides the switching cycle of the output voltage into two periods according to a ratio between a dead time and the switching cycle of the output voltage, calculates a predicted current of the assumed voltage vector for each of the two periods obtained by the two-dividing, determines an evaluation function between the assumed voltage vector and the predicted current, sets the assumed voltage vector which has highest evaluation function result, as a command voltage vector. A gate signal g for outputting a voltage expressed by the command voltage vector from the power converter is output. The power converter is driven and controlled based on the gate signal.

A dead time control method (100) comprising the steps of: converting the DC link voltage, output current and output voltage to digital values with an ADC (Analog to Digital converter) (102); calculating the hysteresis band for adaptive hysteresis current control using the values read by the ADC and updating the band value via recalculating it at each sampling time (103); calculating the IrefH and IrefL values using the hysteresis band and Iref (103a); generating the PWM signal by hysteresis current control (104), generating two auxiliary control signals as VP, VN (105); in the region where VP=1 and VN=0, applying of the drive signal of T.sub.1 without setting dead time wherein T.sub.1 is the conduction duration of an upper switch, and not applying the drive signal of T.sub.2 wherein T.sub.2 is the turn off duration of said upper switch and is the conduction duration of a lower switch (106).

In a drive circuit, a differential circuit unit is configured such that resetting of an output voltage of the differential circuit unit is carried out, and the resetting of the output voltage of the differential circuit unit is cancelled. A value of the difference between first and second divided terminal voltages at a timing of cancelling the resetting is defined as a reference voltage. The differential circuit unit generates, as the output voltage, a product of a voltage change from a reference voltage and a predetermined amplification factor after cancelling of the resetting of the differential circuit unit. A signal generator generates a gate signal for the upper- and lower-arm switches in accordance with a value of the output voltage of the differential circuit unit while the upper- and lower-arm switches are in an off state.

There is provided an electric-power conversion apparatus in which a dead time can be set, while in an electric-power converter in which an AC current flows in a series circuit of switching devices, there is considered the effect of an error between a current value obtained for setting a dead time and an actual current value at a time of setting the dead time. An electric-power conversion apparatus, for a series circuit of each set, obtains a value of a current flowing in the series circuit is obtained; for an obtained current value, corrects a current error caused by a phase shift between a value of an actual current at a time when the dead time is set and the obtained current value; and set the dead time based on the corrected current value.

There is provided a switching valve for a voltage source converter, the switching valve including a number of modules, each module including at least one switching element and at least one energy storage device, each switching element and each energy storage device arranged to be combinable to selectively provide a voltage source, the switching valve including a controller programmed to selectively control the switching of the switching elements to select zero, one or more of the modules to contribute a or a respective voltage to a switching valve voltage. The controller is programmed to selectively control the switching of the switching elements to carry out a switching operation and to apply a time delay if a charging current is flowing through the modules and/or apply a time delay to a start time of the switching operation if a discharging current is flowing through the modules.

A dead time controller includes a phase detector, a filter circuit and an amplifying circuit. The phase detector generates a detection signal by detecting a phase difference between a first driving control signal applied to a first power transistor and a second driving control signal applied to a second power transistor, the detection signal being associated with a dead time corresponding to an overlapped deactivation interval between the first and second driving control signals. The filter circuit generates a DC voltage signal by filtering and averaging the detection signal based on a pulse-width modulation (PWM) signal. The PWM signal is generated by performing a PWM on an output voltage provided at an output node coupled to a second terminal of the inductor. The amplifying circuit generates an amplified voltage signal having a voltage level proportional to the dead time by amplifying the DC voltage signal.

A system for optimizing dead time of switches, for example in power converters, using software. The system is first calibrated. The system determines the state that switches should be in. If the switch state needs to be changed, the system determines an optimized dead time which needs to be waited between turning one switch off and a complimentary switch on. The system controls the switches to turn on or off switches and waiting only the duration of the optimized dead time.