Drive circuit

A drive circuit for driving a plurality of power semiconductor elements connected in parallel with each other, the drive circuit comprising:

• a common board to generate a common drive signal for controlling on and off of all of the power semiconductor elements connected in parallel;
• and
• a plurality of individual boards, wherein
• each of the individual boards is provided individually for a corresponding power semiconductor element among the power semiconductor elements, and supplies the drive signal to the corresponding power semiconductor element,
• among the individual boards, one individual board or each of some individual boards includes a detection circuit, and
• when detecting an abnormality in electrical characteristics of the corresponding power semiconductor element, the detection circuit changes the drive signal by transmitting an abnormality detection signal to the individual boards and the common board, or transmitting the abnormality detection signal to the common board without transmitting the abnormality detection signal to the individual boards.