Patent ID: 7286906

Claim:
A method for determining a voltage provided by a power circuit having N switches in a circuit configuration, where each switch includes a unidirectional current element having a connected node that is coupled to a voltage source and an opposite node, each switch having a present current direction, said method comprising the steps: (a) for each switch that opens: (i) determining the direction of the present current direction with respect to a free-wheeling current path of the unidirectional current element; (ii) if the present current direction is positive with respect to the free-wheeling current path, then the voltage at the opposite node is a determined voltage and is equal to the voltage at the connected node; and, (iii) if the present current direction is negative with respect to the free-wheeling current path, then the voltage at the opposite node is an undetermined voltage; (b) combining the values of all determined voltages present at the opposite nodes of each switch in accordance with the circuit configuration of the power circuit to form a vector representing the voltage provided by the power circuit; and (c) using the vector to estimate a main flux linkage of a load circuit associated with the power circuit to model and predict the behavior of the load circuit in order to select switching states for the power circuit to achieve specified performance criterion for the load circuit.