A power tool is configured to receive power from a power supply. The power tool may include a rectifier that may output a rectified signal to a DC power bus. A switching arrangement may operate to deliver electric power from the DC power bus to an electric motor. A switch path may be electrically coupled in parallel with the rectifier on the DC power bus. The switch path includes an auxiliary capacitor in series with a switch and a state of the switch controls a discharging path for the auxiliary capacitor. A switch control circuit may be configured to detect voltage associated with at least one of the AC power supply or the DC power bus and to control state of the switch in accordance with magnitude of the detected voltage.

A discharge duty that is a duty at which a switch is conductive takes a value obtained by dividing a product of a crest value of a single-phase AC voltage and a square of a cosine value of a phase of the single-phase AC voltage by a both-end voltage across a capacitor. A sum of a product of a rectifying duty that is a duty at which a converter is conductive and a rectified voltage output from the converter and a product of the both-end voltage and the discharge duty varies in a period that is a half of the period of the single-phase AC voltage.

An electric power conversion device includes: a converter circuit which includes a boost chopper; a capacitor which is connected between output terminals of the converter circuit; a boost chopper which boosts a terminal voltage of the capacitor; a multiphase inverter circuit; and a boost chopper controller. In a case where the operation of the boost chopper is continuously stopped, the capacitor has a capacitance allowing the terminal voltage of the capacitor to have a pulse frequency twice as high as that of the AC power source. The multiphase inverter circuit has an output power which is allowed to fluctuate in synchronization with a power source.

A device includes a transformer configured to supply a pre-charge voltage to a capacitor and a converter configured for coupling to the transformer and responsive to an increasing modulation index. The modulation index increases for a time quanta after the capacitor becomes substantially fully charged and the pre-charge voltage is substantially constant during the time quanta.

A four-terminal circuit element is described that includes a photonic core inside of the circuit element that uses a wide bandgap semiconductor material that exhibits photoconductivity and allows current flow through the material in response to the light that is incident on the wide bandgap material. The four-terminal circuit element can be configured based on various hardware structures using a single piece or multiple pieces or layers of a wide bandgap semiconductor material to achieve various designed electrical properties such as high switching voltages by using the photoconductive feature beyond the breakdown voltages of semiconductor devices or circuits operated based on electrical bias or control designs. The photonic core aspect of the four-terminal circuit element provides unique features that enable versatile circuit applications to either replace the semiconductor transistor-based circuit elements or semiconductor diode-based circuit elements.

A four-terminal circuit element is described that includes a photonic core inside of the circuit element that uses a wide bandgap semiconductor material that exhibits photoconductivity and allows current flow through the material in response to the light that is incident on the wide bandgap material. The four-terminal circuit element can be configured based on various hardware structures using a single piece or multiple pieces or layers of a wide bandgap semiconductor material to achieve various designed electrical properties such as high switching voltages by using the photoconductive feature beyond the breakdown voltages of semiconductor devices or circuits operated based on electrical bias or control designs. The photonic core aspect of the four-terminal circuit element provides unique features that enable versatile circuit applications to either replace the semiconductor transistor-based circuit elements or semiconductor diode-based circuit elements.

A main circuit of a power conversion device includes: an AC/DC converter for performing power factor correction control for a single-phase AC power supply; and a DC/DC converter connected to the AC/DC converter via a DC capacitor. In order to reduce ripple voltage and ripple current for the DC capacitor, a control circuit superimposes, onto a DC current command, an AC current command having the minimum value at the zero cross phase of the single-phase AC power supply and having the maximum value at the peak phase thereof, to generate an output current command for the DC/DC converter, and performs output control for the DC/DC converter, using the output current command.

Provided are a three-phase AC/DC converter disposed between a three-phase AC power supply and a light emitting diode group, the converter including a three-phase full bridge circuit in which pairs of switching elements are connected in parallel between DC buses for the three phases of the three-phase AC power supply; reactors connecting connection portions between the switching elements and corresponding phases of the three-phase AC power supply; a smoothing capacitor on the output side of the three-phase full bridge circuit; a DC voltage detection means; a power supply voltage phase detection means; and a pulse width modulation means for outputting pulse width modulation signals of the switching elements, wherein the pulse width modulation means outputs the pulse width modulation signals based on a power supply voltage phase and an output voltage between the DC buses.

An electric power conversion device includes a transformer composed of three or more windings magnetically coupled with each other, wherein power supply sources, are connected to at least two windings, via switching circuits, a load is connected to at least one winding, and a control circuit temporally divides, within one switching period, a total ON time during which power is supplied, in accordance with the number of the power supply sources, to supply power, the one switching period being the minimum repetitive unit during which power is supplied alternately. The control circuit allocates the divided ON times to the respective switching circuits, and the switching circuits, supply power from the power supply sources, to the load side during the allocated ON times, respectively.

A method and apparatuses for handling delayed zero crossing in fault current through a circuit breaker are disclosed. An interface arrangement is configured to couple an alternating current, AC, power system with a direct current, DC, power system, or vice versa. The interface arrangement includes at least one converter for conversion of AC power to DC power, or vice versa, which includes a DC side for coupling of the converter to the DC power system and an AC side for coupling of the converter to the AC power system. A circuit breaker is arranged in a current path between the AC side of the at least one converter and the AC power system. There may be a risk of delayed zero crossing in fault current occurring in case a fault occurs in a predefined portion of the interface arrangement. If a fault is sensed to occur in the interface arrangement within the predefined portion of the interface arrangement, opening of contacts of the circuit breaker can be delayed by a selected delay time period, compared to if the fault would have been within a portion of the interface arrangement different from the predefined portion.