Fully integrated gate drive supply Around Power switches

Main power switches such as metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors or insulated gate bipolar transistors have reached very high performances from an electrical point of view. If their electrical characteristics are getting closer to physical limits, there is still a lot to do to improve their functionalities. The paper presents the monolithic integration of a gate drive power supply with the power switch to be driven. The operating principle is discussed to demonstrate that all needed components for this function can be integrated with the power switch. It is also demonstrated that the solution does not require any main power switch technological process modification-leading to a cost effective solution. Modeling and analysis comments are provided in order to clarify and to present operating principles and possible design constraints. Finally, the realization itself is presented. Prototypes are used to highlight the interest of such function.