An amplifier circuit acting as a line driver in a line between a central station and field devices connected thereto comprising: a DC/DC converter integrated in the circuit as a power stage comprising a DC/pulse converter with two electrically isolated switching stages; a logic block preceding the converter, generating control signals for the switches from a PWM signal and feeding them into the converter in an electrically isolated manner using drivers; a priority block generating the PWM signal; a first and a second controller. The priority block forwards output from the first or second controller. The first controller generates a fault signal based on a voltage limit and an output voltage fed back within the amplifier circuit via a feedback path. The second controller generates a fault signal based on a current limit and the output current. The central station defines the current limit and the voltage limit.

Methods and apparatus which use a microinverter comprising integrated neutral forming function for off-grid facilities are provided herein. For example, a microinverter configured for use with an AC storage system comprises switching circuitry connected at an AC output of the microinverter, a three-line connector connected at the AC output and comprising a neutral line connected between two lines configured to connect to at least one of a single phase grid system or a split phase grid system, wherein the neutral line is connected to the microinverter at a point that maintains a mid-way voltage between the two lines voltage.

A method and apparatus for converting power comprising an input bridge having an input adapted for coupling to a DC source, a piezoelectric transformer having an input coupled to an output of the input bridge, and an output bridge having an input coupled to an output of the piezoelectric transformer and an output adapted to couple to a load. A trajectory controller, coupled to the input bridge and output bridge, (1) measures current and voltage in the input bridge, the output bridge or both, (2) measures a current into or out of the piezoelectric transformer, (3) determines switch timing for control signals for the input bridge and output bridge based upon the measured current and/or voltage, and (4) applies the control signals to the input bridge and output bridge.

A resonant switching power converter includes: at least one capacitor; switches coupled to the at least one capacitor; at least one charging inductor; at least one discharging inductor; and a zero current estimation circuit. The switches switch electrical connection relationships of capacitors according to an operation signal. The zero current estimation circuit estimates a time point at which a charging resonant current is zero during a charging process and/or estimate a time point at which a discharging resonant current is zero during at least one discharging process according to voltage differences across two ends of the charging inductor and/or the discharging inductor, so as to correspondingly generate a zero current estimation signal. The zero current estimation signal is adopted to generate the operation signal.

A method of controlling charge of a vehicle battery includes: determining, by a control unit, whether a high voltage battery and a low voltage battery are charged in a first charging mode, a second charging mode, or a third charging mode; and charging at least one of the high voltage battery or the low voltage battery by controlling a first full-bridge circuit unit, a second full-bridge circuit unit, and a low voltage direct current (DC) converter unit based on the determined first, second or third charging mode.

According to at least one aspect of the disclosure, a bi-directional AC/DC converter is provided comprising a DC-power connection configured to be coupled to a DC-power source, an AC-power connection configured to be coupled to at least one of an AC-power source or a load, a multiplexer having a plurality of multiplexer switches, at least one interleaved bridge circuit having a plurality of bridge switches coupled to the multiplexer, and a positive DC node and a negative DC node coupled to the plurality of multiplexer switches, wherein the plurality of bridge switches includes at least two bridge switches coupled between the AC-power connection and at least one of the positive DC node or the negative DC node.

A system for driving four-quadrant (4Q) switches of a power converter is provided herein and comprises a transformer driver module, a first gate driver module and a second gate driver module coupled to the transformer driver module via a first isolation transformer and a second isolation transformer, respectively, for receiving both switch signal information and power, and a first bidirectional switch and a second bidirectional switch coupled to the first gate driver module and the second gate driver module and to one another for driving the first bidirectional switch and the second bidirectional switch based on the switch signal information.

At least some embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to systems and methods for predictive energy management for an electrified powertrain. In some embodiments, the system is configured to: receive a first state-of-charge (SOC) of a high-voltage energy storage system; receive a second SOC of a low-voltage energy storage system; predict an energy recuperation of an electrified powertrain using telematics data; and determine a charging direction of a bidirectional converter based on the predicted energy recuperation, the first SOC, and the second SOC.

A direct electrical power converter, DPX, that connects a primary port including a DC or AC energy source, with a secondary port including a DC or AC load, comprising a transformer or autotransformer; a first power switch between two nodes, having two power terminals and a first control terminal; and a second power switch between other different two nodes having two power terminals, and a second control terminal wherein said switches are configured to connect the primary port energy source to the secondary port load, through the transformer or autotransformer. The cited first and second power switches are configured to be operated simultaneously under the action of a logic control signal providing a conducting status with all the power switches being simultaneously in an On state or with all the power switches simultaneously in an Off state, connecting or disconnecting said transformer to said primary port and said secondary ports simultaneously.

An isolated bidirectional converter and a method for controlling the same are provided. A primary winding or a secondary winding of a transformer module in the isolated bidirectional converter is connected in parallel with a first branch includes a first inductor and a first current sensor that arc connected in series, A current flowing through the first inductor is acquired by the first current sensor, and is proportional to a current flowing through a magnetizing inductor of the winding. Therefore, the current is controlled by modifying a duty cycle of a switch transistor on a bridge arm in the circuit, so that a. direct current component of a current flowing through the winding is modified indirectly, thereby avoiding magnetic bias on the magnetizing to inductor of the transformer module, and preventing the transformer module from being saturated.