Isolated partial power processing power converters

An Input-Parallel-Output-Series (IPOS)-type power converter circuit comprising:

• an inverter circuit coupled to a DC power source to generate an AC voltage;
• a transformer having a primary winding coupled to an inverter output;
• a resonant tank network coupled to secondary windings of the transformer;
• a half-bridge rectifier network, comprising first and second half bridges coupled in series, coupled to the resonant tank network;
• a capacitor network comprising first and second capacitors coupled in series, the capacitor network coupled to an output of the half-bridge rectifier network and a common circuit node;
• and
• a non-isolated, regulated DC-to-DC converter to provide an output voltage, the converter comprising a positive input and a negative input respectively coupled to opposite ends of the first capacitor and the first half bridge rectifier, wherein a positive output is coupled to the output voltage, further wherein a negative output of the converter is connected to a common node of the negative input, the second capacitor, the first capacitor, and the half-bridge rectifier network.

A method for operation of an Input-Series-Output-Parallel (ISOP)-type power converter circuit, the method comprising:

• generating a DC power supply voltage;
• generating regulated DC voltages from the power supply voltage with a non-isolated, DC-to-DC converter having a negative input connected to a negative output;
• converting the regulated DC voltages to first AC voltages with half-bridge inverters;
• filtering the first AC voltages with a resonant tank network to generate filtered AC voltages;
• generating second AC voltages, from the filtered AC voltages, through a transformer;
• and generating a DC output voltage from the second AC voltages.

A method for operation of an Input-Parallel-Output-Series (IPOS)-type power converter circuit, the method comprising:

• generating a DC power supply voltage;
• generating a primary AC voltage from the power supply voltage to be coupled to a primary winding of a transformer;
• generating a plurality of secondary AC voltages from secondary windings of the transformer;
• filtering the plurality of secondary AC voltages to generate a plurality of filtered AC voltages;
• converting the plurality of filtered AC voltages to a plurality of DC voltages with half-bridge inverters;
• and
• converting the plurality of DC voltages to an output voltage from a positive output of an isolated, regulated DC-to-DC converter having a negative input connected to a negative output.