Gate driver and power converter

A power converter comprising:

• a switching element connected between a high electric potential output of a power supply and a low electric potential output of the power supply;
• a drive circuit configured to drive a gate of the switching element in accordance with an input signal indicating a command to turn on or to turn off the switching element;
• a switch-off surge detection circuit configured to detect switch-off surge that occurs in the switching element;
• a time storing circuit configured to measure, each time when the input signal is switched to a command to turn off the switching element, a time width from a time when the input signal is switched to the command to turn off the switching element to a time when the switch-off surge detection circuit detects occurrence of the switch-off surge, and to store the time width when the time width is measured;
• a power supply voltage detection circuit configured to detect, as power supply voltage, a potential difference between the high electric potential output of the power supply and the low electric potential output of the power supply;
• a switching determination circuit configured to determine whether or not to switch a gate driving condition of the switching element, in accordance with the power supply voltage detected by the power supply voltage detection circuit;
• and
• a driving condition switching circuit configured to switch the gate driving condition in accordance with a timing signal output from the switching determination circuit;
• wherein
• in response to the switching determination circuit determining to switch the gate driving condition at a time of an (n+1)-th turn off of the switching element (n is an integer greater than 0),
• the switching determination circuit outputs the timing signal to the driving condition switching circuit when a time equivalent to the time width that is measured and stored by the time storing circuit at an n-th turn-off of the switching element elapses, since the (n+1)-th turn-off of the switching element is started;
• and
• the driving condition switching circuit switches the gate driving condition in response to receiving the timing signal from the switching determination circuit.