Patent ID: 8760135

Claim:
A system having a bipolar junction transistor for driving a load and a base driver circuit coupled to drive a base of the bipolar junction transistor, wherein the base driver circuit comprises: A DC-DC converter comprising an inductor, the inductor having a first terminal coupled to a base of the bipolar junction transistor, a high-side switching device coupled to drive a second terminal of the inductor; and a rectification device coupled to the second terminal of the inductor; and A control circuit for providing a sequence of pulses through the high-side switching device of the DC-DC converter when a control signal indicates the bipolar junction transistor is to be turned on; the control circuit not providing pulses to the high-side switching device when the control signal indicates the bipolar junction transistor is to be turned off; the base driver circuit comprising circuitry configured to prevent deep saturation in the bipolar junction transistor prior to turnoff; wherein the circuitry configured to prevent deep saturation in the bipolar junction transistor prior to turnoff comprises circuitry configured to prevent deep saturation by using feedback from a collector of the bipolar junction transistor to reduce a pulsewidth of the pulses through the high-side switching device when the bipolar junction transistor enters saturation.