US 11,722,129 B2
Universal clamping circuit for automotive switch gate drives
Yantao Song, Northville, MI (US); Baoming Ge, Okemos, MI (US); Lihua Chen, Farmington Hills, MI (US); and Serdar Hakki Yonak, Ann Arbor, MI (US)
Assigned to FORD GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES, LLC, Dearborn, MI (US)
Filed by Ford Global Technologies, LLC, Dearborn, MI (US)
Filed on Apr. 1, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/711,480.
Application 17/711,480 is a division of application No. 16/752,241, filed on Jan. 24, 2020, granted, now 11,309,881.
Prior Publication US 2022/0337234 A1, Oct. 20, 2022
Int. Cl. H03K 17/082 (2006.01); H02M 1/34 (2007.01); H03K 17/567 (2006.01); H02M 1/00 (2006.01)
CPC H03K 17/0822 (2013.01) [H02M 1/34 (2013.01); H03K 17/567 (2013.01); H02M 1/0048 (2021.05); H02M 1/344 (2021.05)] 10 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An automotive vehicle comprising:
an electric machine;
a traction battery; and
a power converter configured to transfer power between the electric machine and traction battery, and including a switch defining a portion of a phase leg, a gate driver circuit configured to provide power to a gate of the switch, and a clamping circuit including a clamping switch, wherein the clamping switch is configured to, responsive to the gate driver circuit being de-energized and a voltage of the gate exceeding a predetermined threshold value, conduct current from the gate to dissipate the voltage and clamp the gate to an emitter of the switch, wherein the clamping switch is a bipolar junction transistor (BJT), and wherein an emitter of the BJT is directly electrically connected with the gate of the switch.