Rockwell International Corporation

Carl O Linder

Patrick E McCollum

James K Brownrigg

An isolated low power thyristor gate drive circuit for driving the gate of a thyristor having an anode and a cathode. The drive circuit is responsive to a signal voltage from a signal source. The signal voltage is sourced with respect to a first reference potential to the low power gate drive circuit. The invention circuit has a dual polarity source (DPS) responsive to the signal source for providing a positive drive signal having a positive polarity with respect to a second reference potential and a negative drive signal having a negative polarity with respect to the second reference potential. A normally open semiconductor device network has a current sink terminal, a current source terminal, and a gate terminal. A normally conducting semiconductor device has a current sink terminal, a current source, and a control terminal. The normally open semiconductor device network current sink terminal is coupled to the thyristor anode. The normally open semiconductor device network gate is coupled to receive the dual polarity source positive drive signal. The normally conducting semiconductor device current sink terminal is coupled to the second reference potential, the thyristor gate and to the normally open semiconductor device network current source terminal. The normally conducting semiconductor device current source terminal is coupled to the thyristor cathode.

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La Habra Heights, CA, United States of America

Carl O Linder