Patent ID: 8045350

Claim:
An n-phase transistor active bridge circuit connectable between at least two input lines and a pair of output lines, said n-phase transistor active bridge circuit comprising: first and second field-effect transistors, a source-drain path of said first field-effect transistor connected in series with a source-drain path of said second field-effect transistor to form a first series transistor combination; third and fourth field-effect transistors, a source-drain path of said third field-effect transistor connected in series with a source-drain path of said fourth field-effect transistor to form a second series transistor combination; said first, second, third and fourth field-effect transistors connected to convert an n-phase AC waveform to a DC waveform, said n-phase AC waveform applied to said n-phase transistor active bridge circuit by at least one voltage source coupled to said input lines; and a plurality of gate drive circuits configured to sense a voltage across said input lines and supply a voltage to gates of said first, second, third and fourth field-effect transistors to switch said field-effect transistors to their “on” states or “off” states at predetermined times determined based on said sensed voltage, each of said plurality of gate drive circuits has a first terminal directly connected to a respective one of a plurality of voltage taps provided by a plurality of voltage divider circuits and a second terminal directly connected to a gate of said respective one of said field-effect transistors; wherein the first, second, third and fourth field effect transistors are of the same channel type.