Analog Devices International Unlimited Company

Analog Devices,inc.

Michael Collins

Steven J Tanghe

Brian Kirk Jadus

Deepak Gunasekaran

Kenneth G Richardson

Art Zirger

An apparatus and methods to operate the same to provide fast fault-detection on power semiconductor devices such as power transistors are disclosed. In some embodiment, a desaturation based fault-detection circuit for a power transistor is provided. The fault-detection circuit has an adaptable blanking time and a disconnect switch in the blanking mechanism that allow for quick enabling of fault-detection mechanisms to achieve fast fault detection times on power semiconductor devices.

Apparatus and method to achieve fast-fault detection on power semiconductor devices

An electronic circuit comprises a power switch circuit and a fault detection circuit. The power switch circuit includes a transistor. The fault detection circuit includes a first comparator circuit configured to compare a monitored voltage of the transistor to a detection threshold voltage and produce an indication of a circuit fault according to the comparing, and a delay circuit configured to delay the comparing by the first comparator circuit according to slew rate of the monitored voltage.

Adaptive blanking of over current fault detection circuits in power conversion gate drivers

Efficiently controlled converter system embodiments are provided to operate in different operational modes. In a first operational PWM mode, first and second transistors are switched with a feedback-controlled duty cycle to thereby realize an inductor current that maintains a system output voltage. In a second operational PFM mode, after the output voltage decays to a lower threshold over a decay time, the control and synchronous transistors are driven a sufficient number of times to raise the output voltage to an upper threshold. The systems are controlled to efficiently transition between the first and second operational modes. For example, a converter system preferably transitions to the second PFM operational mode when current peaks of the inductor current drop below a predetermined current threshold and the system preferably transitions to the first PWM operational mode when the output voltage drops to a predetermined reference voltage.

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Michael Collins