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Abstract

A tapped inductor buck converter which achieves zero voltage switching and continuous input and output terminal currents is revealed. To achieve these results an additional switch, a small inductor, and a capacitor are required. The small inductor serves as a source of energy for driving the critical turn on transition of the main switch and the same small inductor also serves as a filter component for smoothing the input and output terminal currents. Simple adaptive gate drive circuits are revealed that improve the timing for turn on of zero voltage switches and reduce gate drive losses. A synchronous rectifier self drive mechanism is revealed which is universally applicable to zero voltage switching power converters with a single main switch which rely on an auxiliary inductor to drive the critical turn on transition of the single main switch. The wave form generated by the auxiliary inductor is ideally suited to synchronous rectifier self drive. Finally, peak current sensing techniques are revealed which are universally applicable to zero voltage switching power converters with a single main switch and an auxiliary switch which rely on an auxiliary inductor to drive the critical turn on transition of the single main switch. The current sensing techniques sense a winding voltage of the auxiliary inductor during the on time of the auxiliary switch. The winding voltage is directly related to the peak current in the main winding of the auxiliary inductor and the peak current in the single main switch of the power converter. The novel current sensing techniques are low noise, reliable, and lossless.

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First Claim