Texas Instruments Corporation

Xiong Li

Toru Tanaka

Anant Shankar Kamath

Adam Lee Shook

Honglin Guo

Danyang Zhu

Gangyao Wang

Suxuan Guo

William Toth

A system comprises a gate driver that is configured to couple to a transistor disposed in a transistor module via a first pin. The gate driver comprises a duty cycle measurement circuit having a first input terminal and a first output terminal, the first input terminal coupled to a second pin via an isolator. The duty cycle measurement circuit comprises a flip-flop, a counter, a shift register, and a comparator. The system comprises an analog to digital converter circuit having a second input terminal, a second output terminal, and a reference terminal, the second input terminal coupled to a third pin configured to couple to a temperature-sensitive device disposed in the transistor module, the second output terminal coupled to a fourth pin via the isolator, and the reference terminal coupled to the first output terminal.

Temperature-sensitive transistor gate driver

A device includes an output circuit configured to drive a gate of a field effect transistor (FET) in response to a drive signal. The FET includes a body diode. Control logic is configured to generate the drive signal to control the output circuit to drive the FET. A measurement circuit is configured to sample a first voltage across the FET in response to a first state of the drive signal and configured to sample a second voltage across the FET in response to a second state of the drive signal. The second state of the drive signal is different from the first state. The control logic is configured to determine a difference between the first voltage and a reference voltage. The control logic is configured to compare the difference to a degradation threshold to determine a level of degradation of the FET. The reference voltage is determined based on the second voltage.

Reliabtility monitor for field effect transistor devices

In a power supply system, a high-side (HS) insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) has a first collector, a first gate, and a first emitter. A low-side (LS) IGBT has a second collector coupled to the first emitter, a second gate, and a second emitter. A gate drive circuit is coupled to the first gate of the HS IGBT and the second gate of the LS IGBT. A control circuit is coupled to the gate drive circuit. The control circuit is configured to control the gate drive circuit for biasing the HS IGBT to a HS saturation, and determine a HS degradation of the HS IGBT based on a HS digitized gate voltage of the HS IGBT in the HS saturation.

Gate driver with Vand Vmeasurement capability for the state of health monitor

In a gate driver, a comparator input is adapted to be coupled through a resistor and a diode to a first transistor. A latch input is coupled to a comparator output. A second transistor has a first control terminal and a first output terminal. The first output terminal is adapted to be coupled to a control terminal of the first transistor. A third transistor is smaller than the second transistor. The third transistor has a second control terminal and a second output terminal. The second output terminal is adapted to be coupled to the control terminal of the first transistor. Control logic has a logic input and first and second logic outputs. The logic input is coupled to a latch output. The first logic output is coupled to the first control terminal. The second logic output is coupled to the second control terminal.

Adaptive gate drivers and related methods and systems

A device that comprises a first semiconductor die and a second semiconductor die. The first semiconductor die comprises a first clock signal generator. The second semiconductor die comprises a fault detection circuit, the fault detection circuit comprising a second clock signal generator, a first counter coupled to the second clock signal generator, multiple storage devices coupled to the second clock signal generator and to the first counter, a logic gate coupled to the multiple storage devices, a second counter coupled to the logic gate and to the first clock signal generator, and a comparator coupled to the logic gate and the second counter.

Device with isolation barrier and fault detection

A gate driver controller, inverter circuit apparatus, and associated discharge method for electric vehicles are disclosed. An example gate driver controller includes a mode determiner to set a mode of operation of the gate driver. The example device includes a gate driver control to control the gate driver to set the gate driver to: a) on, b) off, or c) generate a pulse width modulation signal. When in a first operating mode and set to on, stored energy is to be transferred from a capacitor to a motor winding inductor via a power transistor activated by the gate driver to dissipate a first portion of the stored energy. When in a second operating mode, a second portion of the stored energy is to be transferred from the motor winding inductor to the power transistor to dissipate the second portion of the stored energy.

Gate driver controller and associated discharge method

A gate driver includes a drive signal input terminal, a drive signal output terminal, a gate drive circuit, and a serial communication interface. The drive signal input terminal is configured to receive a gate drive signal. The gate drive circuit is coupled to the drive signal input terminal and the drive signal output terminal. The gate drive circuit is configured to provide the gate drive signal to the drive signal output terminal. The serial communication interface is coupled to the drive signal input terminal.

Gate driver with serial communication

Adaptive gate drivers and related methods and systems are disclosed. An example gate driver system includes a comparator, a latch having first and second inputs and outputs, the first input coupled to the comparator, a timer having an input and an output, the input coupled to the first output of the latch, the output coupled to the second input of the latch, control logic having an input and first and second outputs, the input coupled to the second output of the latch, first and second transistors having a gate, a first buffer having an input and an output, the input coupled to the first output of the control logic, the output coupled to the gate of the first transistor, and a second buffer having an input and an output, the input coupled to the second output of the control logic, the output coupled to the gate of the second transistor.

An isolated insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) gate driver is provided which integrates circuits, in-module, to support the measurements of threshold voltage, and collector-emitter saturation voltage of IGBTs. The measured gate threshold and collector-emitter saturation voltage can be used as precursors for state of health predictions for IGBTs. During the measurements, IGBTs are biased under specific conditions chosen to quickly elicit collector-emitter saturation and gate threshold information. Integrated analog-to-digital converter (ADC) circuits are used to convert measured analog signals to a digital format. The digitalized signals are transferred to a micro controller unit (MCU) for further processing through serial peripheral interface (SPI) circuits.

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Allen, TX, United States of America

Xiong Li