GATE DRIVER FOR SWITCHING CONVERTER HAVING BODY DIODE POWER LOSS MINIMIZATION

摘要

In a switching converter having an inductive load, a current may flow through a body diode of a transistor even if a gate of a transistor is being controlled to keep the transistor off. Then when the other transistor of a switch leg is turned on, a reverse recovery current flows in a reverse direction through the body diode. To reduce switching loss associated with the current flow, a gate driver integrated circuit detects when current flow through the body diode rises above a threshold current. The gate driver integrated circuit then controls the transistor to be turned on. Then when the other transistor of the switch leg is turned on, the gate driver first turns the transistor off. When a gate-to-source voltage of a turned off transistor drops below a threshold voltage, then the gate driver integrated circuit allows and controls the other transistor to be turned on.