A power converter designed for operation at high frequencies includes a soft-switching cell comprising a split inductor, a resonant inductor, a resonant capacitor, two diodes and a controlled semiconductor. Alternatively, the power converter includes a soft-switching cell comprising a transformer having isolated windings, a resonant inductor, a resonant capacitor, two diodes and a controlled semiconductor.

A power factor correction device for an AC voltage supply system includes a transformer which is interconnected, on the secondary side, to form a star point circuit and which has a secondary-side connection for each phase. A module series circuit with at least two switching modules, which are connected in series and each of which has at least four switches and a capacitor, is respectively connected between each of the secondary-side connections of the transformer and the star point of the star circuit. There is provided a transformer which is a high-leakage-reactance transformer.

In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, a system for power conversion may include a power converter comprising a power inductor and a switch coupled to the power inductor and a predriver system for electrically driving a gate of the switch, the predriver system configured to operate in a plurality of modes including a high-power mode in which the predriver system is supplied with electrical energy from a first power supply having a first supply voltage and a low-power mode in which the predriver system is supplied with electrical energy from a second power supply having a second supply voltage significantly lesser than the first supply voltage.

A power converter circuit and an associated method of converting an AC power supply. The power converter circuit comprises: a supply rectifier circuit (2) for rectifying an AC supply power to generate a rectified supply power; an inverter circuit (3) for receiving the rectified supply power to generate an inverted supply power; a load rectifier circuit (4) for rectifying the inverted supply power to generate a rectified load power for supplying a load current to a load (5); and a boost circuit (6) driven by the load current to provide a boosted voltage to the rectified supply power.

Methods for operation of a phase-shifted full-bridge topology power converter in a true soft-switching mode, regardless of the value of the leakage inductance of the converter. To achieve this, a process of discharge of the parasitic capacitances across the switching elements from a part of the resonant leg starts after the entire, total energy in the leakage inductance is used, and the voltage across the primary switching elements reaches the specific lower level.

A system includes a transformer having a multi-phase AC input and AC phase segment outputs. A plurality of rectifiers are each connected to receive AC input from a respective one of the AC phase segment outputs. Each rectifier has a respective positive DC output and a respective negative DC output. A first interphase transformer (IPT) with a respective winding is connected to each of the positive DC outputs of the plurality of rectifiers. The windings of the first IPT are connected to an output node of a positive DC power rail. A second IPT with a respective winding is connected to each of the negative DC outputs of the plurality of rectifiers. The windings of the second IPT are connected to an output node of a negative DC power rail. A power switch is operatively connected from the positive DC power rail to the negative DC power rail.

Apparatus is provided comprising an electrical motor comprising a rotor and a stator, the rotor comprising a plurality of rotor teeth and the stator comprising a plurality of stator teeth. The apparatus has a driver circuit to drive the electrical motor comprising a boost converter comprising a charge storage element and coupled to a first terminal of a coil winding on at least one of the plurality of stator teeth, and a buck converter comprising the same charge storage element and coupled to the same first terminal of the coil winding on the at least one of the plurality of stator teeth. An inductive element of the boost converter and the buck converter is provided by the coil winding of the at least one of the plurality of stator teeth, and the charge storage element is referenced to a supply node for coupling the second terminal of the coil winding to an electrical supply.

Current flow monitoring, from which a power dissipation metric in a load circuit may be obtained, is often performed using a current sense resistor. However, this implies extra circuit complexity. This application discusses a way to derive an indication of power consumption in a situation where an efficient load, is present, without the use of a current sense resistor, or the associated electronics. A nebulizer is an example of a device used for providing a medicament to a patient via their respiratory tract. A nebulizer typically comprises a reservoir for storing the medicament, in fluid communication with a means for converting the medicament to an aerosol. Knowledge of the power dissipation of such devices is useful.

The invention relates to a power converter stage (2) for providing power supply to a power converter controller (3), a power converter controller (3) for such power converter stage (2), a power converter (1) including such power converter stage (2) and such power converter controller (3), a method for providing power to a controller (3) of a power converter (1) and a software product for controlling a power converter (1). In order to provide for auxiliary power supply for control circuitry of a power converter (1) during all operation modes of the power converter (1) while avoiding additional costs involved with providing a dedicated control power supply fed from bus voltage, it is proposed that power stored in power storing means (4, 5) included in a power converter stage (2) or more generally in a power converter (1) are used for supply to the controller (3) even if the power converter is in stand-by mode, as a transfer of power between such power storing means (4,5) through a primary inductance (6) may be used for providing also for a power transfer to a secondary inductance (7), which then supplies the controller (3).

A driver circuit for driving an electrical motor coil is provided which comprises combined switched inductance boost voltage converter circuitry and switched inductance buck voltage converter circuitry. An input node of the driver circuit is provided to be coupled with the electrical motor coil, which provides the inductive element of both the boost and buck circuitry. Further the boost and buck circuitry share a storage capacitor, which provides the capacitive element of each circuitry, and a voltage developed across the storage capacitor by the boost circuitry forms an input of the switched inductance buck voltage converter circuitry. Bidirectional driving of the electrical motor coil is thus provided from a driver circuit which only need be supplied with a single unidirectional supply and the current drawn from that supply is significantly reduced because of the manner in which the boost and buck circuitry operate synergistically to recycle electrical power which is moved back and forth between the electrical motor coil and the storage capacitor. A corresponding driver board, electrical motor driver apparatus, method of operating a driver circuit and apparatus are also provided.