Texas Instruments Corporation

Austin Womac

Orlando Lazaro

Siew Kuok Hoon

Richard Kane Stair

Eric Southard

Ryan Lind

In a voltage converter, a blocking transistor has a conduction path between a power terminal and a converter terminal. A body diode of the blocking transistor: conducts current from the power terminal to the converter terminal; and blocks current from the converter terminal to the power terminal. A first switching transistor has a conduction path between the converter terminal and a switching terminal. A second switching transistor has a conduction path between the switching terminal and a ground terminal. A first gate driver has an output coupled to a control terminal of the first switching transistor. A second gate driver has an output coupled to a control terminal of the second switching transistor. A driver circuit has an output coupled to a control terminal of the blocking transistor. A bootstrap terminal of the driver circuit is coupled to a bias input of the first gate driver.

Blocking and startup transistor control in voltage converters

Aspects of the disclosure include a first sense transistor having a gate and a drain configured to couple in parallel with a high-side transistor and a source terminal coupled to a first node, and a second sense transistor having a gate and a drain configured to couple in parallel with a low-side transistor, and a source terminal coupled to a third node. The circuit further includes a first comparator circuit having a first input coupled to the first node, a second input coupled to a second node, and an output, a second comparator circuit having a first input coupled to the third node, a second input coupled to a ground node, and an output, and a logic circuit having first input coupled to the output of the first comparator circuit, a second input coupled to the output of the second comparator circuit, and an output.

Charge termination circuit

A device includes a power converter having an input coupled to a first node and an output coupled to an output terminal adapted to couple to a battery. A blocking transistor is coupled between a second node and the first node. A regulator has inputs coupled to the first node and the second node and an output coupled to a control node of the blocking transistor. The regulator is configured to control the blocking transistor to regulate a voltage drop across the blocking transistor based on a voltage between the first node and the second node. The regulator is also configured to turn off the blocking transistor in response to a voltage at the first node exceeding a voltage at the second node by at least a threshold to block boost-back current flowing from the output terminal to the second node.

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