Patent ID: 8405343

Claim:
A vehicle drive apparatus for driving vehicular tires by an AC motor, the apparatus comprising an inverter unit for controlling the AC motor, the inverter unit including: an inverter circuit section including a plurality of high breakdown voltage semiconductor elements; an integrated circuit chip including a first circuit section for controlling operating timing of the plurality of high breakdown voltage semiconductor elements and a second circuit section for outputting drive signals for driving the plurality of high breakdown voltage semiconductor elements according to the operating timing and for feeding back an abnormality of the inverter circuit section to the first circuit section formed on an SOI substrate; and a buffer circuit provided separately from the integrated circuit chip, for receiving the drive signals from the second circuit section and outputting the drive signals to the plurality of high breakdown voltage semiconductor elements, and wherein: the second circuit section is provided in plurality, the inverter circuit section is provided in plurality, and the plurality of second circuit sections correspond to respective ones of the plurality of inverter circuit sections; each of the second circuit sections includes a high voltage side circuit section and a low voltage side circuit section; the first circuit section is a single circuit section common to the plurality of inverter circuit sections; the first circuit section, the high voltage side circuit section, and the low voltage circuit section are separated by dielectrics from one another; and a voltage of a reference potential of the low voltage side circuit section is directly supplied from a pad or terminal for supplying the voltage, and wirings for supplying the voltage of the reference potential are not shared by the plurality of low voltage side circuit sections and are independent of one another.