Enhancement mode FET gate driver IC

• US 10,243,546 B2
• Filed: 05/25/2017
• Issued: 03/26/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/25/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Efficient Power Conversion Corporation
• Original Assignee: Efficient Power Conversion Corporation
• Inventors: de Rooij, Michael A., Reusch, David C., Biswas, Suvankar
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Long
• Application Number:
  US15/605,219
• Publication Number:
  US 20170346475A1
• Time in Patent Office: 670 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/0605 integrated circuits made of compound material, e.g. AIIIBV
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/088 the components being field-effect transistors with insulated gate
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/2003 Nitride compounds
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 17/0406 in composite switches
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 17/063 in field-effect transistor switches
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 17/223 in field-effect transistor switches
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 19/018507 Interface arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 3/02337 Bistables with hysteresis, e.g. Schmitt trigger non-regenerative amplitude discriminators G01R19/165

Abstract

A fully integrated GaN driver comprising a digital logic signal inverter, a level shifter circuit, a UVLO circuit, an output buffer stage, and (optionally) a FET to be driven, all integrated in a single package. The level shifter circuit converts a ground reference 0-5 V digital signal at the input to a 0-10 V digital signal at the output. The output drive circuitry includes a high side GaN FET that is inverted compared to the low side GaN FET. The inverted high side GaN FET allows switch operation, rather than a source follower topology, thus providing a digital voltage to control the main FET being driven by the circuit.

Claims

1. An integrated gate driver circuit for driving an enhancement mode GaN field effect transistor, comprising the following elements fully integrated in a single chip:

a gate driver, comprising;

a first logic inverter circuit;

a supply voltage level shifter circuit having an input and an output, the supply voltage level shifter circuit converting a ground reference 0-5 V digital signal at the input to a 0-10 V digital signal at the output, the supply voltage level shifter comprising two stages;

a first stage which acts as a bootstrap supply, comprising an enhancement mode GaN transistor with a source terminal connected to a gate terminal and to the supply voltage, the enhancement mode GaN transistor acting as a diode to charge a bootstrap capacitor; and

a second stage comprising a second logic inverter circuit with a supply of 10 V when its output is high and a supply of 5 V when its output is low; and

an output stage; and

an undervoltage lockout circuit connected to the gate driver, comprising;

a voltage reference circuit for generating a predetermined voltage reference; and

a comparator for receiving the output of the voltage reference circuit and for preventing operation of the gate driver if the supply voltage falls below said predetermined voltage reference.

2. The integrated gate driver circuit of claim 1, wherein all transistors in the integrated gate driver circuit are enhancement mode GaN field-effect transistors.

3. An integrated circuit comprising the integrated gate driver circuit of claim 2, integrated with the enhancement mode GaN field-effect transistor to be driven.

4. The integrated gate driver circuit of claim 1, wherein the output stage comprises a half bridge circuit formed of a high side enhancement mode GaN transistor and a low side enhancement mode GaN transistor, with the high side enhancement mode GaN transistor inverted relative to the low side enhancement mode GaN transistor.

5. The integrated gate driver circuit of claim 1, further comprising a synchronous bootstrap FET supply gate driver circuit.

6. The integrated gate driver circuit of claim 5, wherein the synchronous bootstrap FET supply gate driver circuit is substantially the same as the gate driver without the output stage.