Method for driving a transistor device and electronic circuit

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9712147-B2
Application number	US-201615242342-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 19, 2016
Priority date	Aug 20, 2015
Publication date	Jul 18, 2017
Grant date	Jul 18, 2017

Abstract

Disclosed is a method and a drive circuit. The method includes measuring a frequency of an input signal received by a drive circuit and driving a transistor device by the drive circuit based on the input signal such that a switching speed of the transistor is dependent on the measured frequency. The drive circuit is configured to receive an input signal, to measure a frequency of the input signal, and to drive a transistor device based on the input signal such that a switching speed of the transistor is dependent on the measured frequency.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
measuring a frequency of an input signal received by a drive circuit; and
driving a transistor device by the drive circuit based on the input signal, wherein a switching speed of the transistor device is dependent on the measured frequency.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising increasing the switching speed of the transistor device as the measured frequency increases.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the switching speed of the transistor device comprises the switching speed of at least at one of switching on the transistor device and switching off the transistor device.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein driving the transistor device comprises generating a drive signal at a gate node of the transistor device.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising increasing the switching speed of the transistor device as the measured frequency increases, wherein
generating the drive signal comprises driving a gate current into the gate node, and
increasing the switching speed comprises increasing a current level of the gate current.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein:
switching on the transistor device comprises driving the gate current in a first direction; and
switching off the transistor device comprises driving the gate current in a second direction opposite the first direction.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
driving the transistor device comprises driving the transistor device in a plurality of timely successive drive cycles such that the transistor device switches on once and switches off once in each drive cycle; and
measuring the frequency comprises measuring a duration of at least one drive cycle.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein measuring the frequency comprises measuring durations of several successive drive cycles and calculating and average duration based on the measured durations.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein measuring the frequency comprises measuring the frequency anew before each drive cycle.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein measuring the frequency comprises measuring the frequency every n drive cycles and applying the measured frequency in n successive drive cycles.

11. A drive circuit configured to:
receive an input signal;
measure a frequency of the input signal; and
drive a transistor device based on the input signal, wherein a switching speed of the transistor device is dependent on the measured frequency.

12. The drive circuit of claim 11 , wherein the drive circuit is configured to increase the switching speed as the measured frequency increases.

13. The drive circuit of claim 11 , wherein the drive circuit is configured to drive the transistor device based on the measured frequency at least at one of switching on and switching off the transistor device.

14. The drive circuit of claim 11 , wherein the drive circuit is configured to drive the transistor device by generating a drive signal at a gate node of the transistor device.

15. The drive circuit of claim 14 , wherein the drive circuit is configured to:
generate the drive signal by driving a gate current into the gate node; and
increase the switching by increasing a current level of the gate current.

16. The drive circuit of claim 15 , wherein the drive circuit is configured to:
switch on the transistor device by driving the gate current in a first direction; and
switch off the transistor device by driving the gate current in a second direction opposite the first direction.

17. The drive circuit of claim 15 , wherein the drive circuit is configured to:
drive the transistor device in a plurality of timely successive drive cycles such that the transistor device switches on once and switches off once in each drive cycle; and
measure the frequency by measuring a duration of at least one drive cycle.

18. The drive circuit of claim 17 , wherein the drive circuit is configured to measure the frequency by measuring durations of several successive drive cycles and calculating an average duration based on the measured durations.

19. The drive circuit of claim 17 , wherein the drive circuit is configured to measure the frequency by measuring the frequency anew before each drive cycle.

20. The drive circuit of claim 17 , wherein the drive circuit is configured to measure the frequency every n drive cycles and apply the measured frequency in n successive drive cycles.

Assignees

• Infineon Technologies Ag

Inventors

• Donath Stephan

Classifications

• H03K17/04106 Primary

  in field-effect transistor switches (H03K17/0412, H03K17/0416 take precedence) · CPC title

• H03K2017/6875

  using self-conductive, depletion FETs · CPC title

• H03K17/687 Primary

  the devices being field-effect transistors · CPC title