U.S. Philips Corporation

North American Philips Corporation

Armin F Wegener

Manfred Albach

Ralf Schafer

Hans-Peter Stormberg

Franciscus A Schoofs

Paul R Veldman

Hubert C Raets

Satyendranath Mukherjee

Michael Amato

A semiconductor device is provided having a substrate which includes a floating circuit well with turn on/turn off signals generated by a voltage drop proximate to at least one resistor contained therein, and having high-voltage interconnects to connect the drain terminals of a plurality of LDMOS transistors to the resistor in the floating well and wherein the transistors, resistor and floating well are combined into an integrated structure which eliminates the high voltage interconnect crossovers.

Semiconductor device configuration with multiple HV-LDMOS transistors

A circuit arrangement is described for supplying a load (1) from a direct voltage source (14) through a switch bridge (3 to 6), by which the direct voltage source (14) can be connected in alternating polarity to the load (1), comprising a control circuit (17) for controlling the switch bridge (3 to 6); and including a circuit for precisely adjusting and controlling a given D.C. component through the load by a device for measuring a current (I1) through the load (1) and supplying a corresponding measurement value and in that the control circuit (17) comprises an integration stage (18) for integrating the measurement value, a comparison stage (20) for comparing the integrated measurement value with a reference value (of 21) and for supplying a switching signal (at 22) when these values correspond to each other and a signal-producing stage (23) for resetting the integration stage (18) to an initial state and for reversing the polarity of the current (I1) through the load (1) upon the occurrence of the switching signal (at 22).

Circuit arrangement for supplying a load

A circuit arrangement is described for supplying a load (1) from a direct voltage source (at 2,3) through a combinatorial circuit part (4) comprising a control circuit (13) for controlling the current the load (1) in a starting time interval after start of the operation. In order that a highest possible power is supplied to the load in a starting time interval after the start of the operation, the control circuit (13) is designed to carry out the following signal processing steps:

In a circuit arrangement for the operation of high-pressure gas discharge lamps by means of a pulsatory supply current having a pulse recurrence frequency between 50 and 2000 Hz and a duty cycle between 0.2 and 0.8, a current having a high-frequency between 20 and 200 kHz is superimposed on the current pulses and with a modulation ratio beween 0.3 and 1. The high-frequency is an integral multiple of the pulse recurrence frequency. Thus, flickering of the lamps is avoided.

Circuit arrangement for the operation of high-pressure gas discharge

A half-bridge is made insensitive to transient induced common mode currents in a pair of control lines between a level shifter and a floating driver for a power transistor of the half-bridge by the provision in the receiver portion of the floating driver of a double differential amplifier responsive to the difference between the voltages developed across sense resistors in series with the control lines. The amplifier produces a pair of output voltages for selectively setting and resetting a flip-flop which controls the conductive state of the driven power transistor. The double differential amplifier has an inherent central dead zone, providing noise immunity, and optional clamp means to limit the extremes of the voltages developed across the sense resistors. The transmitter portion of the level shifter contains elements thermally and resistively matched to the receiver for determining the amplitudes of the transmitted control currents.

Half-bridge driver which is insensitive to common mode currents

A driver circuit for a high voltage switching power transistor has a first stage connected to the power transistor control terminal for turning the power transistor on and off, and a second stage connected to the power transistor control terminal acting as a current sink for capacitive current due to the transistor capacitances. The second stage is arranged to turn on when the power transistor control terminal voltage falls below a turn-on value and to be turned off when that voltage rises above a turn-on value. A driver circuit for a high voltage half-bridge switching power circuit, having two such power transistors connected in series, has similar upper and lower driver circuits and a level shifting circuit for providing control pulses to the upper driving circuit.

Driver for high voltage half-bridge circuits

A circuit for operating high-pressure gas discharge lamps comprises a full-wave rectifier (2) which is connected to an alternating voltage supply source and supplies an output direct voltage to a combinatorial circuit part comprising a switching transistor (3), a choke coil (4), a fly-wheel diode (5) and a storage capacitor (6), from which the lamp is energized. A further combinatorial circuit part (7, 8, 10, 11) comprises at least one electronic circuit element (7) coupled between the storage capacitor (6) and the lamp (9) and is controlled by a control device (12). The control device compares an instantaneous lamp current of higher frequency with a nominal-value signal composed of a sinusoidal voltage component having double the supply frequency and a d.c. voltage component having a value of at least the maximum amplitude of the sinusoidal voltage.

Circuit arrangement for operating high-pressure gas discharge lamps

A circuit arrangement for generating a direct voltage from a sinusoidal input voltage. A capacitor (2) is coupled to an output terminal (3) of a rectifier (1) which receiver the input voltage and is discharged via a first diode arrangement (5) and a load (10) which is connected to the output of the rectifier (1). A series circuit is connected in parallel with the first diode arrangement (5) and comprises a second diode arrangement (4), via which only the chage current of the capacitor (2) flows, and at least a parallel arrangement of a control circuit (9) and a smoothing capacitor (7).

Circuit arrangement for generating a direct voltage from a sinusoidal

A circuit arrangement for reducing an interference current produced by a load (2). The frequency of the interference current is considerably higher than the frequency of a supply voltage source (1) which is coupled to the load. In order to reduce the interference current, a compensation circuit is provided comprising at least one connection branch connected in the leads between the load and the supply voltage source and having each time a series-combination of a capacitor and a controlled signal source. Each signal source supplies a current dependent upon a control signal. The control signals are derived from the current flowing in a lead to the connection branch or away from it. The magnitude and the phase of the currents supplied by the signal sources are proportioned so that the interference current flows for the major part through the connection branch.

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Aachen, Germany

Armin F Wegener