Patent ID: 7619910

Claim:
A power converter comprising: a) a positive bridge terminal, a negative bridge terminal and at least one composite switching pole connected between the positive and negative bridge terminals for regulating the power flowing through an active bridge terminal; b) each composite switching pole having an inductor assembly and a plurality of bipolar switching poles; c) the bipolar switching poles having a first active switch connected between the positive bridge terminal and an active pole terminal and a second active switch connected between the active pole terminal and the negative bridge terminal, each active switch being connected in parallel with a diode; d) the inductor assembly in each composite switching pole having an inductor assembly common terminal that is connected to the active bridge terminal; e) the inductor assembly having a plurality of windings that are each connected to one of the active pole terminals; f) the first and second switches in each bipolar switching pole being operated in an alternating manner while the bipolar switching poles in each composite switching pole are operated in an interleaved manner so as to successively transfer current among the plurality of inductor windings; g) the inductor assemblies having an inductance between each pair of the plurality of inductor assembly input terminals that reduces peak reverse recovery currents of diodes within the bipolar switching poles.