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US 11,695,408 B2Granted
Gate drive apparatus and method thereof
AssigneeNuVolta Technologies (Heifei) Co., Ltd.
InventorsJunxiao Chen, Yingying Yang
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method includes detecting a signal on a switching node connected to a power switch, detecting a gate drive voltage of the power switch, during a gate drive process of the power switch, reducing a gate drive current based on a first comparison result obtained from comparing the signal with a first threshold, and during the gate drive process of the power switch, increasing the gate drive current based on a second comparison result obtained from comparing the gate drive voltage with a second threshold.
Claims20
An apparatus comprising:
- a plurality of pull-up switches connected in parallel between a first voltage bus and a gate of a power switch, wherein the plurality of pull-up switches is configured such that in a turn-on process of the power switch, a gate current of the power switch changes twice so that a low turn-on gate current flows into the gate of the power switch after a first high turn-on gate current and before a second high turn-on gate current;
- and
- a plurality of pull-down switches connected in parallel between the gate of the power switch and a second voltage bus, wherein the plurality of pull-down switches is configured such that in a turn-off process of the power switch, the gate current of the power switch changes twice so that a low turn-off gate current flows out of the gate of the power switch after a first high turn-off gate current and before a second high turn-off gate current.
A method comprising:
- in a turn-on process of a power switch, configuring a plurality of pull-up switches so that a first high turn-on gate current, a low turn-on gate current and a second high turn-on gate current occur in a phase prior to a turn-on Miller plateau phase, the turn-on Miller plateau phase, and a phase after the turn-on Miller plateau phase, respectively;
- and
- in a turn-off process of the power switch, configuring a plurality of pull-down switches so that a first high turn-off gate current, a low turn-off gate current and a second high turn-off gate current occur in a phase prior to a turn-off Miller plateau phase, the turn-off Miller plateau phase, and a phase after the turn-off Miller plateau phase, respectively.
A controller comprising:
- a first sensing circuit configured to receive a gate drive voltage of a power switch;
- a second sensing circuit configured to receive a voltage on a switching node connected to the power switch;
- and
- an adaptive slew rate control apparatus comprising a plurality of pull-up switches and a plurality of pull-down switches, wherein:
- the plurality of pull-up switches is connected in parallel between a bias voltage source and a gate of the power switch, wherein the plurality of pull-up switches is configured such that a turn-on gate current changes twice in a turn-on process of the power switch;
- and
- the plurality of pull-down switches is connected in parallel between the gate of the power switch and ground, wherein the plurality of pull-down switches is configured such that a turn-off gate current changes twice in a turn-off process of the power switch.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.