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AssigneeNavitas Semiconductor Limited
InventorsVictor Sinow, Weijing Du
Estimating the term…
Systems and methods that automatically detect state of switches in power converters are disclosed. In one aspect, a power switch includes a first switch coupled between a power input node and a first terminal of a load, a second switch coupled between the power input node and a second terminal of the load, first and second current sense devices arranged to transmit first and second signals including at least one of a magnitude and polarity of first and second currents through the first and second switches, respectively, a first driver circuit arranged to transmit first control signals to the first switch based at least in part on a voltage at the power input node and the first signal, and a second driver circuit arranged to transmit second control signals to the second switch based at least in part on the voltage at the power input node and the second signal.
A circuit comprising:
The circuit of claim 1, wherein the first switch is a gallium nitride (GaN) based switch.
The circuit of claim 4, wherein the first threshold generation circuit is arranged to generate a first threshold signal based on the voltage at the power input node.
The circuit of claim 5, wherein a value of the first threshold signal is based on a duty cycle of a pulse width modulated (PWM) signal received from a controller.
The circuit of claim 6, wherein the value of the first threshold signal is high when the duty cycle of the PWM signal is high.
The circuit of claim 11, wherein the first receiving circuit comprises a low-pass filter, and wherein the first drain terminal is coupled to a DC power supply.
A method of operating a circuit, the method comprising:
The method of claim 13, wherein transmitting the first turn-off signal to the first power switch occurs when the first signal is higher than the first reference voltage and when a first controller turn-off signal is received by the first power switch.
The method of claim 14, further comprising transmitting a second turn-off signal to the second power switch when the second signal is high than a second reference voltage and when a second controller turn-off signal is received by the second power switch.
The method of claim 16, wherein the generating the first reference voltage based on the voltage of the power input node further comprises:
The method of claim 17, further comprising selectively connecting the power input node to a first terminal of a load and to a second terminal of the load.
The method of claim 18, wherein the connecting of the power input node to the first terminal of the load is performed when a drain terminal of the first power switch is approximately equal to a voltage at the first terminal of the load.
The method of claim 19, wherein the connecting of the power input node to the second terminal of the load is performed when a source terminal of the second power switch is approximately equal to a voltage at the second terminal of the load.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.