Single supply hybrid drive resonant gate driver
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorsShuitao Yang, Yan Zhou, Lihua Chen, Fan Xu
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A gate driver of a power device includes an inductor and a supply. The inductor is configured to, during a transitional period of the power device, convert a potential on a gate to a field, and the field to an opposite potential to toggle the gate and charge a floating capacitor to the opposite potential as an excess field collapses. The supply is configured to maintain the gate at the potential and generate the excess field during a non-transitional period.
Claims17
A gate driver of a power device comprising:
- a supply;
- a capacitor;
- an inductor, and
- a circuit including a plurality of switching devices that are configured to (i) selectively couple the supply to a gate of the power device, (ii) selectively couple the capacitor to the gate and the inductor, and (iii) selectively couple the inductor to the gate, the circuit further including a controller that is configured to, during a transitional period of the power device, operate the switching devices to cause the inductor to convert a potential on the gate to a field, and the field to an opposite potential to toggle the gate and charge the capacitor to the opposite potential as an excess field collapses and, during a non-transitional period, operate the switching devices to cause the supply to maintain the gate at the potential and generate the excess field.
A method of recirculating a gate charge during transitioning of a power switch for a vehicle powertrain comprising:
- by a gate driver,
- latching, in an off state of the power switch, a negative charge onto a gate of a power switch by forming a conductive path from the gate through a pull-down switch and a resonant pull-down switch to a supply;
- inducing, responsive to a request to turn on the power switch, a field in an inductor by flowing a negative charge on the gate of the power switch by coupling the inductor to the gate through a resonant pull-up switch and a resonant pull-up diode;
- converting the field to a positive charge by opening the pull-down switch and the resonant pull-down switch;
- flowing the positive charge onto the gate through the resonant pull-up diode and the resonant pull-up switch and excess charge to a capacitor through an antiparallel diode across a pull-up switch that is coupled between the capacitor and the resonant pull-up switch;
- and
- latching the positive charge onto the gate via the capacitor by closing the pull-up switch.
A gate driver of a power device comprising:
- a capacitor and a supply arranged with a first set of switching devices in a circuit in a push-pull configuration;
- a resonant circuit, including an inductor that is selectively couplable to the gate in a pull-up and a pull-down mode by a second set of switching devices and corresponding diodes;
- and
- a controller configured to operate the first set and the second set of switching devices to recirculate charge during turn-off by inducing a first field based on a positive charge from a gate of the power device caused by a positive potential of the supply, and in response to reversal of a voltage across the inductor, collapsing the first field to draw charge from the gate and to a capacitor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.