US 11,451,129 B1Granted

Gate driver circuit for a power supply voltage converter

AssigneeAES Global Holdings PTE Ltd.

InventorsRobert Ryan, Diarmuid Hogan

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

A gate driver circuit comprises an auxiliary winding, a voltage summer, an auxiliary voltage bus, a gate driver integrated circuit (IC), and a controller. The auxiliary winding is positioned adjacently to the inductor and configured to inductively couple with the inductor. The voltage summer comprises a pair of diodes coupled to the auxiliary winding and a pair of capacitors coupled to the pair of diodes. The auxiliary voltage bus is configured to receive a summed voltage from the voltage summer based on a sum of voltages stored in the pair of capacitors. The gate driver IC is configured to receive a voltage from a positive rail of the auxiliary voltage bus and to output a gate control signal to control a switching device based on the received voltage and based on a pulse signal generated by the controller.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A gate driver circuit for a voltage converter having a voltage input, a voltage output, a switching device coupled to the voltage input, and an inductor coupled between the switching device and the voltage output, the gate driver circuit comprising:

an auxiliary winding positioned adjacently to the inductor and configured to inductively couple with the inductor;
a voltage summer comprising:
a pair of diodes coupled to the auxiliary winding;
and
a pair of capacitors coupled to the pair of diodes;
an auxiliary voltage bus coupled in parallel with the voltage summer and configured to receive a summed voltage from the voltage summer based on a sum of voltages stored in the pair of capacitors;
a gate driver integrated circuit (IC) coupled to the auxiliary voltage bus, the gate driver IC comprising:
a logic input configured to receive a pulse signal;
an output stage supply input configured to receive a voltage from a positive rail of the auxiliary voltage bus;
and
a drive output configured to output a gate control signal based on the voltage received from the positive rail and based on the pulse signal received at the logic input;
and
a controller configured to:
generate the pulse signal;
and
supply the pulse signal to the logic input.

13 more elements

A voltage converter comprising:

a voltage input configured to receive a bulk voltage;
a voltage output configured to provide an output voltage to a load;
a controlled switching device coupled to the voltage input;
a transformer comprising:
a primary winding coupled between the controlled switching device and the voltage output;
and
a secondary winding inductively coupled with the primary winding;
a voltage summer comprising:
first and second diodes coupled to the secondary winding;
and
first and second capacitors coupled to the first and second diodes;
an auxiliary voltage bus coupled in parallel with the voltage summer and configured to receive a summed voltage from the voltage summer based on a sum of voltages stored in the first and second capacitors;
a gate driver integrated circuit (IC) coupled to the auxiliary voltage bus and configured to control a conducting state of the controlled switching device based on a voltage from a positive rail of the auxiliary voltage bus and based on a pulse signal received by a logic input;
and
a controller configured to:
generate the pulse signal;
and
supply the pulse signal to the logic input.

15 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 17/220,976Filed 2 Apr 2021
Published: US 2022/0320993 A16 Oct 2022
Granted: 20 Sep 2022
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification12 codes

H02M 1/08
Details of apparatus for conversion: circuits specially adapted for the generation of control voltages for semiconductor devices incorporated in…
H03K 17/063
Modifications for ensuring a fully conducting state: in field-effect transistor switches
H02M 1/0006
Details of control, feedback or regulation circuits: arrangements for supplying an adequate voltage to the control circuit of converters
H02M 1/36
Details of apparatus for conversion: means for starting or stopping converters

Family

US 2022/0320993 A1Published application
US 11,451,129 B1This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

Timeline

Citations

Open elsewhere

Building an agent or pulling many patents? Use the API or MCP server instead of scraping pages. Get an API key