Power conversion circuit, multiphase voltage regulator, and power conversion method
AssigneeRenesas Electronics Corporation
InventorsKoji TATENO, Takahiro NOMIYAMA, Yoshinao MIURA, Hideo ISHII
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Disclosed is a power conversion circuit that suppresses the flow of a through current to a switching element based on a normally-on transistor. The power conversion circuit includes a high-side transistor and a low-side transistor, which are series-coupled to each other to form a half-bridge circuit, and two drive circuits, which complementarily drive the gate of the high-side transistor and of the low-side transistor. The high-side transistor is a normally-off transistor. The low-side transistor is a normally-on transistor.
Claims19
A power conversion circuit comprising:
- a high-side transistor and a low-side transistor that are series-coupled to each other to form a half-bridge circuit;
- and
- two drive circuits that complementarily drive the gate of the high-side transistor and of the low-side transistor;
- wherein the high-side transistor is a normally-off transistor, and
- wherein the low-side transistor is a normally-on transistor.
A power conversion method used by a power conversion circuit having two drive circuits that complementarily drive the gate of a high-side transistor and of a low-side transistor, which are series-coupled to each other to form a half-bridge circuit, the power conversion method comprising the steps of:
- when the power supply voltage of at least either of the two drive circuits deviates from a predetermined value, causing either of the two drive circuits to turn off the high-side transistor;
- and
- when the power supply voltage is equal to the predetermined value, causing the two drive circuits to control the switching operation of the high-side transistor and of the low-side transistor in accordance with an input PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.