Patent ID: 7233083

Claim:
A power converter comprising: a shared first-side stage to receive an input; a plurality of second-side stages coupled to the first-side stage, each of second-side stages to generate an output; control circuitry to separately monitor the outputs of the second-side stages and generate a control signal for each output, wherein the control signal turns off switching elements of a corresponding one of the second-side stage to regulate the output; and steering diodes in series with switching elements of the first-side stage coupling the switching elements of the first-side stage to switching elements of the second-side stages to allow forward bias current to flow from the switching elements of the first-side stage to the switching elements of the second-side stages and to inhibit current from flowing in a reverse bias direction between the switching elements of the second-side stages when a switching element of one of the second-side stages is turned off before a switching element of one of the other second-side stage; and a switching signal generator comprising a plurality of sets of transforming windings, wherein switching signals for switching on and off each of the switching elements of the first-side stage are each provided by separate windings of the sets of transforming windings, and wherein center tap windings of the sets of transforming windings provides a switching signal for switching on and off one of the switching elements of the second-side stages.