Patent ID: 8729929

Claim:
A gate driving circuit comprising: a gate control circuit establishing electrical continuity of a gate voltage supply path from a power source line to a gate terminal of a transistor in response to an on-command and breaking electrical continuity of the gate supply path in response to an off-command, and a gate voltage limit circuit limiting a gate voltage of the transistor to be less than or equal to a first voltage in response to the on-command at least in a period until a determination of whether an electric current greater than a fault criterion value flows to the transistor ends and then limiting the gate voltage of the transistor to be less than or equal to a second voltage, wherein the first voltage is set so that the electric current flowing to the transistor is less than or equal to a maximum allowable current regardless of a voltage applied to the transistor, and wherein the second voltage is set to be less than or equal to a gate breakdown voltage of the transistor, and a power source voltage monitor circuit transmitting a gate protection signal when a voltage of the power source line is greater than or equal to a monitor level that is set in accordance with the gate breakdown voltage of the transistor, wherein after the period in which the gate voltage limit circuit limits the gate voltage of the transistor to be less than or equal to the first voltage ends, the gate voltage limit circuit limits the gate voltage to be less than or equal to the second voltage when the gate protection signal is transmitted, and the gate voltage limit circuit does not limit the gate voltage when the gate protection signal is not transmitted.