Drive circuit

A drive circuit for driving an upper-arm switch and a lower-arm switch connected in series to each other, the drive circuit comprising:

• a main driver configured to alternately turn on the upper-arm switch and the lower-arm switch,
• one of the upper-arm switch and the lower-arm switch being in an on state by the main driver being referred to as a target arm switch,
• the other of the upper-arm switch and the lower-arm switch being in an off state by the main driver being referred to as an opposite arm switch,
• an intrinsic diode connected in antiparallel to the opposite arm switch being referred to as an opposite arm diode;
• and
• a protective driver configured to:
• determine whether a failure has occurred in the target arm switch;
• and
• change the target arm switch from the on state to the off state, and the opposite arm switch from the off state to the on state upon determining that a failure has occurred in the target arm switch.