Patent ID: 6867553

Claim:
A continuous mode voltage fed inverter comprising: a resistor starting network connected to receive an input from an input voltage source, and charges the inverter using the input; a resonant circuit configured to generate an oscillating signal following the starting of operation of the inverter by the resistor starting network; a complementary switching network having a pair of complementary common source connected switches configured to receive the oscillation signal generated by the resonant circuit, wherein the oscillation signal determines a switching rate of the complementary pair of switches, the complementary switching network including a gate drive arrangement for regeneratively controlling the pair of complementary common source connected switches including, (i) a driving inductor mutually coupled to the resonant circuit in such manner that a voltage is induced therein which is proportional to the instantaneous rate of change of the inverter; said driving inductor being connected between a common node and a control node; (ii) a second inductor serially connected to said driving inductor, with the serially connected driving and second inductors being connected between said common node and said control node; and (iii) a bidirectional voltage clamp connected between said common node and said control node for limiting positive and negative excursions of voltage of said control nodes with respect to said common node, and; a clamping circuit configured to maintain an inverter current in an inductive mode, wherein the inductive current lags voltage across the pair of complementary common source connected switches.