Method of limiting a current supplied by a DC power supply

1. A method of limiting a current i dc supplied by a DC power supply, the method comprising:

interposing a switching stage between the power supply and a load, the switching stage including a controllable switch in series with a freewheel diode; and

periodically controlling the switch so that for each period of duration T, the following averaged quantity

1

T

⁢

∫

o

t

⁢

i

_

·

ⅆ

t

is calculated in which i is a current that is an image of the power supply current i ds , the averaged quantity being reset to zero at the beginning of each period, with the switch being caused to be closed so long as said averaged quantity remains below a predetermined current threshold i thresh , and with the switch being caused to be open, otherwise,

said method being implemented by a power converter including a plurality of arms, each of which arm comprises two switching cells in series, each cell comprising a controlled switch connected in parallel with a diode, wherein, for the duration of the period T, a switch in one of the cells of one of the arms is kept closed while a switch of another one of the cells in another one of the arms is controlled in application of the periodic control step.

2. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the image current i is a current I obtained by differential filtering of the power supply current.

3. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the switch control signal is an output from a comparator that compares the output from a resettable integrator with a current setpoint equal to the threshold current i thresh , the integrator receiving as input the current that is an image of the power supply current.