Patent ID: 11962252
Assignee: NXP USA, INC.
Field: Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 9:
10. An apparatus comprising:
a first high side gate driver;
a first low side gate driver;
a microcontroller configured to control the first high side and low side gate drivers via high side and low side pulse-width modulation signals, respectively;
a voltage regulator for providing a supply voltage to the microcontroller;
a first pair of high side voltage regulators for providing a first pair of high side supply voltages to the first high side gate driver;
wherein the first pair of high side voltage regulators are enabled by a signal provided by a device other than the microcontroller;
a first pair of low side voltage regulators for providing a first pair of low side supply voltages to the first low side gate driver;
wherein the first high side gate driver comprises low and high voltage stages that are galvanically isolated from each other;
wherein the first pair of high side voltage regulators comprises first and second voltage regulators;
wherein the first pair of high side supply voltages comprises first and second supply voltages;
wherein the first voltage regulator is configured to provide the first supply voltage to the low voltage stage;, wherein the second voltage regulator is configured to provide the second supply voltage to the high voltage stage;
further comprising,
a first terminal for receiving a first positive battery voltage;
a second terminal for receiving a second positive battery voltage that is substantially equal to the first positive battery voltage; and
first and second diodes comprising first and second anodes, respectively, and first and second cathodes, respectively;

wherein the first and second anodes are connected to the first and second terminals, respectively;
wherein the first and second cathodes are connected together to provide a common voltage that depends on the first or second positive battery voltages;
wherein the second voltage regulator is configured to convert the common voltage into the second supply voltage for the high voltage stage; and
wherein the voltage regulator is configured to convert the common voltage, or another voltage that is dependent on the common voltage, into the supply voltage for the microcontroller.