Some apparatus and associated methods relate to a buck-derived switched mode power supply with three-quarter bridge (TQB) formed with a bypass switch in parallel with an inductor. In an illustrative example, the bypass switch may be configured to, in response to a decrease in average load demand, operate in a first mode to turn on the bypass switch to selectively circulate inductor current through the bypass switch while a high-side switch and a low-side switch are off. In a second mode, the bypass switch may be turned off to circulate the inductor current through, for example, an output capacitor and the low-side switch. In some implementations of the TQB, the bypass switch may be operated, for example, to selectively transfer a controlled amount of energy stored in the inductor to the output capacitor in response to a decrease in average load demand.
