Gate driver circuit for high and low side switches with primary and secondary shoot-through protection

摘要

A driver circuit for alternately driving a first transistor and a second transistor connected in series includes primary and secondary anti-shoot-through protection. The driver circuit prevents shoot-through at the first and second transistors by using a pair of switch lock-out signals. The switch lock-out signals prevent one transistor from turning on until the other transistor is turned off. The driver circuit eliminates shoot-through in the driver devices driving the first and second transistors by using a pair of driver lock-out signals. The driver devices are turned on only briefly during the transitions of the first and second transistors. Otherwise, the driver devices are turned off. The driver lock-out signals ensure that no contention occurs between the driver devices and furthermore, set up the driver devices for the next On-Off switching sequence. The driver circuit can achieve a fast switching operation as well as improve the efficiency of the power transistors.