US 2021/0067154 A1Published application

Transformer-Based Driver for Power Switches

AssigneeInfineon Technologies Austria AG

InventorsKennith Kin Leong, Thomas Ferianz

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Abstract

Transformer-driven power switch devices are provided for switching high currents. These devices include power switches, such as Gallium Nitride (GaN) transistors. Transformers are used to transfer both control timing and power for controlling the power switches. These transformers may be coreless, such that they may be integrated within a silicon die. Rectifiers, pulldown control circuitry, and related are preferably integrated in the same die as a power switch, e.g., in a GaN die, such that a transformer-driven switch device is entirely comprised on a silicon die and a GaN die, and does not necessarily require a (large) cored transformer, auxiliary power supplies, or level shifting circuitry.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A transformer-driven switch device, comprising:

a power transistor comprising a first load terminal, a second load terminal, and a control terminal that controls conductivity between the first and second load terminals;
a first transformer comprising a first primary winding and a first secondary winding;
and
a first rectifier coupled between the first secondary winding and the control terminal,
wherein the first secondary winding and the first rectifier are configured to transfer requisite energy and control timing for driving the control terminal, so as to control conductivity between the first and second load terminals, based upon an input waveform coupled to the first primary winding, the input waveform comprising a turn-on interval having a plurality of high-frequency pulses that the first transformer and the first rectifier convert to a single turn-on control pulse that is provided to the control terminal for turning on the power transistor, and comprising a direct-current (DC) voltage level during a turn-off interval of the power transistor.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 16/560,145Filed 4 Sep 2019
Published: 4 Mar 2021
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification16 codes

H03K 17/687
By the use, as active elements, of semiconductor devices: the devices being field-effect transistors
H03K 17/691
With galvanic isolation between the control circuit and the output circuit: using transformer coupling
H03K 17/567
By the use, as active elements, of semiconductor devices: circuits characterised by the use of more than one type of semiconductor device, e.g.…
H10W 72/50
Interconnections or connectors in packages: bond wires

Family

US 10,958,268 B1Related patent
US 2021/0067154 A1This patent

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

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