Back to results
US 8,994,442 B2Granted
Switching circuit and controller circuit
AssigneeFairchild Semiconductor Corporation
InventorAndrei Konstantinov
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
New designs of high power switching circuits and controller circuits are provided. Principal silicon bipolar switch is connected in parallel to snubber switch that is formed of a wide bandgap material. The snubber switch is activated during at least one of turn-on and turn-off of the principal silicon switch so as to minimize (or reduce) the switching loss and to bypass safe operation area limitations.
Claims19
A switching circuit, comprising:
- a first switching device, the first switching device being a silicon-based bipolar switching device;
- a second switching device including a wide bandgap semiconductor, the first switching device, the second switching device including a cascode circuit and a low-voltage silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET), the low-voltage silicon MOSFET having a source terminal and a drain terminal both clamped by a Zener diode;
- and
- a controller circuit configured to trigger the second switching device before triggering at least one of turn-on or turn-off of the first switching device such that the second switching device is activated during at least one of turn-on or turn-off of the first switching device.
1 more element
A switching circuit, comprising:
- a first silicon-based bipolar switching device;
- a second switching device including a wide bandgap semiconductor, the first switching device and second switching device being connected in parallel;
- and
- a controller circuit operatively coupled to the switching circuit, the controller circuit being configured to trigger the second switching device before triggering at least one of turn-on and turn-off of the first switching device such that the second switching device is activated during the at least one of the turn-on and the turn-off of the first switching device.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.