CIRCUIT AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING A SYNCHRONOUS RECTIFIER IN A POWER CONVERTER

A control circuit and corresponding method, particularly for power converters in a system having paralleled power converters, for rapidly and efficiently controlling a free-wheeling synchronous rectifier, so as to prevent any large negative current flow that might cause damage to components of the converter during a fault condition where the PWM signal turns off or has missing cycles. Preferably, clock signal and the gate drive output of a PWM controller are compared in order to recognize a failure condition and to rapidly provide control of the synchronous rectifier so as to prevent the large negative current flow. Control of the free-wheeling synchronous rectifier is provided in a way that is dependent on the gate drive output of the PWM controller and independent of timing, current sense signals, voltage sense signals, the current share system, and the operation of the forward synchronous rectifier of the power converter.