Patent ID: 8258852

Claim:
A high-side driver circuit comprising: a supply node having a supply voltage; a charge pump node having a charge pump voltage, wherein the charge pump voltage is higher than the supply voltage; a first stage receiving a pulsing input and generating a first high pulse on a first high pulse node and a second high pulse on a second high pulse node, the first high pulse pulsing between the supply voltage and a first voltage less than the supply voltage, the second high pulse pulsing between the supply voltage and a second voltage less than the supply voltage and less than the first voltage; a second stage receiving the first high pulse and the second high pulse, for generating a third pulsing node and a fourth pulsing node; wherein the first stage and the second stage are powered by the supply voltage and are not connected to the charge pump node; a high-side driver transistor controlled by a gate node and driving current from the supply node to an output; a pullup-control transistor receiving a pull-up-control node that controls current flow from the charge pump node to the gate node; an output-shorting transistor controlled by a coupling node, for connecting the gate node to the output when the high-side driver transistor is turned off; a coupling capacitor coupled between the third pulsing node and the coupling node; an output-sensing transistor coupled to the output and generating a sense current; a generating transistor receiving the sense current and generating a feedback signal to the second stage; a sink transistor that receives the feedback signal on a gate and is coupled to sink current from the fourth pulsing node in response to the feedback signal; an equalizing transistor for connecting the third pulsing node to the fourth pulsing node when the second stage senses the first high pulse near the supply voltage; and a capacitor-output shorting transistor for connecting the coupling node to the output in response to a gate connected to the third pulsing node.