Patent ID: 7933105

Claim:
A switching element driving method comprising: detecting an overcurrent that flows through a switching element; detecting a gate voltage of the switching element if the overcurrent that flows through the switching element is detected; causing a rapid-off operation of decreasing the gate voltage of the switching element at a faster rate than the rate of decrease of the gate voltage at a time of a normal turn-off, where an overcurrent is not detected, and, while the switching element keeps an on-state, then causing a slow-off operation of decreasing the gate voltage of the switching element at a slower rate of decrease than the rate of decrease of the gate voltage at the time of the normal turn-off, if the detected gate voltage of the switching element is greater than a predetermined value; and decreasing the gate voltage by only the slow-off operation if the detected gate voltage of the switching element is less than or equal to the predetermined value.