Infineon Technologies Austria Ag

Analog Devices International Unlimited Company

Infineon Technologies Ag

Analog Devices,inc.

Analog Devices Global

Infineon Technologies LLC

Bernhard Strzalkowski

Martin Feldtkeller

Marco Seibt

Anton Mauder

Jens Barrenscheen

Lei Wang

Wolfgang Werner

Marcus Nuebling

Uwe Kirchner

Frank Kahlmann

Mark Cope

Roderick McConnell

Qingyi Huang

Hartmut Jasberg

Ulrich Schwarzer

The present disclosure provides techniques for predicting failure of power switches and taking action based on the predictions. In an example, a method can include controlling the at least two parallel-connected power switches via a first driver and a second driver, the first a second driver responsive to a single command signal, measuring a failure characteristic of a first power switch, and disabling a first driver of the first power switch when the first failure characteristic exceeds a failure precursor threshold.

Aging protection techniques for power switches

Various examples are directed to a circuit for biasing a power amplifier (PA). The circuit may comprise a first isolated power supply comprising a first DC output and a first common output as well as a second isolated power supply comprising a second DC output and a second common output. The second DC output may be electrically coupled to the first common output. The circuit may also comprise a switch network that is configurable to a first state in which the first DC output is provided at a circuit output and to a second state in which the second DC output is provided at the circuit output.

Power amplifier modulator

Herein disclosed in some embodiments is a fault detector for power amplifiers of a communication system. The fault detector can detect a portion of the power amplifiers that are in fault condition and can prevent or limit current flow to the power amplifiers in fault condition while allowing the rest of the power amplifiers to operate normally. The fault detector can further indicate which power amplifiers are in fault condition and/or the cause for the power amplifiers to be in fault condition. Based on the indication, a controller can direct communications away from the power amplifiers in fault condition and/or perform operations to correct the fault condition.

Power amplifier fault detector

A power device can be structured with a power switch having multiple arrangements such that the power switch can operate as a power switch with the capability to measure properties of the power switch. An example power device can comprise a main arrangement of transistor cells and a sensor arrangement of sensor transistor cells. The main arrangement can be structured to operate as a power switch, with the transistor cells of the main arrangement having control nodes connected in parallel to receive a common control signal. The sensor arrangement of sensor transistor cells can be structured to measure one or more parameters of the main arrangement, with the sensor transistor cells having sensor control nodes connected in parallel to receive a common sensor control signal. The sensor transistor cells can have a common transistor terminal shared with a common transistor terminal of the transistor cells of the main arrangement.

Power switch arrangement

Techniques for determining a temperature measurement of a junction of a power switch are described. A current can be applied to a control node, e.g., gate terminal, of the power switch, such as a field-effect transistor (FET) or an insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT), while the power switch is in a steady-state region in which a gate-to-source voltage (e.g., FET) or a gate-to-emitter voltage (e.g., IGBT) of the power switch is constant. While in the steady-state region, the temperature measurements can be performed, thereby ensuring accuracy of the measurement.

Techniques for junction temperature determination of power switches

An isolator includes a transmitter, a coupling module and a receiver. The transmitter drives an input of the coupling module in response to a digital signal, such that in response to a first type of digital data value in the digital signal, a signal of a first predetermined type is supplied to the input and in response to a second type of digital data value in the digital signal, a signal of a second predetermined type is supplied to the input, the signals of the first type and the second type each including an initiation signal that announces a time window during which another portion of the signals representing a digital data value of the first type or the second type will be valid. The receiver is coupled to an output of the coupling module to receive and to decode signals in correspondence to the signals provided to the input.

Digital signal transfer using integrated transformers with electrical isolation

A transformer based isolated bi-directional DC-DC power converter may have signals for controlling power transfer in first and second directions are derived from the same side of the transformer. The converter may include a transformer, a first switching circuit, a second switching circuit, and a controller. In a first mode, the controller controls the first and second switching circuits, and power is transferred from a first side to a second side. In a second mode, the controller controls the first and second switching circuits, and power is transferred from the second side to the first side.

Transformer-based isolated bi-directional DC-DC power converter, and method and controller for using same

A multilevel DC-DC converter includes a voltage source that provides a voltage Voutto at least one charge converter circuit and an output filter capacitor having an associated output voltage Vout. The at least one charge converter circuit includes a transformer having at least one primary winding and at least two secondary windings, a primary and secondary circuit each having at least two switching elements, and a control unit which receives a control signal, such as but not limited to an envelope tracking signal, which represents a desired output voltage. The control unit is arranged to provide output control signals to the respective switching elements of the primary and secondary circuits to activate and deactivate the respective switching elements to obtain a desired output voltage Vout. The multilevel DC-DC converter can be arranged to operate as a boost converter or as a buck-boost converter.

High bandwidth, high efficiency DC-DC multilevel converter topology

Disclosed is a circuit arrangement for generating a drive signal for a transistor. In one embodiment, the circuit arrangement includes a control circuit that receives a switching signal, a driver circuit that outputs a drive signal, and at least one transmission channel. The control circuit transmits, depending on the switching signal for each switching operation of the transistor, switching information and switching parameter information via the transmission channel to the driver circuit. The driver circuit generates the drive signal depending on the switching information and depending on the switching parameter information.

Circuit arrangement and method for generating a drive signal for a transistor

A circuit for a semiconductor switching element including a transformer. One embodiment provides a first voltage supply circuit having a first oscillator. A first transformer is connected downstream of the first oscillator. A first accumulation circuit for providing a first supply voltage is connected downstream of the first transformer. A driver circuit having input terminals for feeding in the first supply voltage and having output terminals for providing a drive voltage for the semiconductor switching element, designed to generate the drive voltage for the semiconductor switching element at least from the first supply voltage.

Circuit including a transformer for driving a semiconductor switching element

A circuit arrangement includes a coreless transformer. A trimming device is connected to the transformer and includes a variable capacitance and/or inductance.

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Munich, Germany

Bernhard Strzalkowski