Gate drive apparatus
AssigneeMitsubishi Electric Corporation
InventorsYoshikazu Tsunoda, Tatsuya Okuda, Masaru Fuku
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A gate drive apparatus including a constant-current-pulse gate drive circuit which creates a gate signal for a switching device as a constant-current output, a constant-voltage-pulse gate drive circuit which creates the gate signal as a constant-voltage output, and a decision/switch circuit which switches the operation of the constant-current-pulse gate drive circuit and the operation of the constant-voltage-pulse gate drive circuit. The variance of switching speeds attributed to the variances of threshold voltages and mirror voltages in a plurality of switching devices which are driven by the gate drive apparatus can be suppressed, and the variance of losses can be minimized.
Claims20
A gate drive apparatus which is connected to a gate of a switching device of voltage drive type, and which outputs, to the gate, gate signals that at least one of turn ON and OFF the switching device on the basis of at least one of ON and OFF gate control signals, respectively, wherein the gate drive apparatus is configured for either or both of the turn-ON operation and the turn-OFF operation, and the gate drive apparatus comprises:
- a constant-current-pulse gate drive circuit which creates the gate signal as a constant-current output;
- a constant-voltage-pulse gate drive circuit which creates the gate signal as a constant-voltage output;
- and
- a decision switch circuit which switches between the operation of said constant-current-pulse gate drive circuit and the operation of said constant-voltage-pulse gate drive circuit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.