Invention Grant
- Patent Title: GaN transistor with integrated drain voltage sense for fast overcurrent and short circuit protection
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Application No.: US15807021Application Date: 2017-11-08
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Publication No.: US11082039B2Publication Date: 2021-08-03
- Inventor: Di Chen , Larry Spaziani
- Applicant: GaN Systems Inc.
- Applicant Address: CA Ottawa
- Assignee: GaN Systems Inc.
- Current Assignee: GaN Systems Inc.
- Current Assignee Address: CA Ottawa
- Agency: Miltons IP/p.i.
- Main IPC: H02H3/00
- IPC: H02H3/00 ; H03K17/081 ; H01L29/20 ; H01L29/423 ; H01L29/778 ; H03K17/082 ; H03K17/16 ; H01L25/18 ; H01L27/06 ; H01L49/02

Abstract:
A GaN power switching device comprises a GaN transistor switch SW_MAIN has an integrated drain voltage sense circuit, which comprises GaN sense transistor SW_SEN and GaN sense resistor RSEN, which at turn-on form a resistive divider for sensing the drain voltage of SW_MAIN to provide a drain voltage sense output VDSEN. Fault detection logic circuitry of a driver circuit generates a fault signal FLT when VDSEN reaches or exceeds a reference voltage Vref, which triggers fast turn-off of the gate of SW_MAIN, e.g. within less than 100 ns of an overcurrent or short circuit condition. During turn-off, RSEN resets VDSEN to zero. For two stage turn-off, the driver circuit further comprises fast soft turn-off circuitry which is triggered first by the fault signal to pull-down the gate voltage to the threshold voltage, followed by a delay before full turn-off of the gate of SW_MAIN by the gate driver.
Public/Granted literature
- US20190140630A1 GaN TRANSISTOR WITH INTEGRATED DRAIN VOLTAGE SENSE FOR FAST OVERCURRENT AND SHORT CIRCUIT PROTECTION Public/Granted day:2019-05-09
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