PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15909126
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-03
Publication Date: 2019-09
Patent Classification: ["327", "434000"]

Abstract:
A circuit for operating a transistor device that acts as a switch is presented. The circuit includes the transistor device and a control circuit coupled to a gate of the transistor device. The control circuit is adapted to selectively apply at least a first voltage level, a second voltage level, and a third voltage level to the gate of the transistor device, wherein the first, second, and third voltage levels are distinct voltage levels. The disclosure further relates to a method of operating a transistor device that acts as a switch. The proposed circuit provides additional gate voltages, by contrast to conventional two-level gate drivers. By appropriate choice of the additional gate voltages, reverse mode conductance losses of the transistor device can be reduced and/or to the Safe Operating Area (SOA) of the transistor device can be improved.

Claim (Index 1):
A circuit for operating a transistor device that acts as a switch, the circuit comprising:\n the transistor device; and a control circuit coupled to a gate of the transistor device, wherein the control circuit is adapted to selectively apply at least a first voltage level, a second voltage level, and a third voltage level to the gate of the transistor device, wherein the first, second, and third voltage levels are distinct voltage levels, wherein the first voltage level is chosen such that a gate-source voltage of the transistor device is substantially zero or negative when the first voltage level is applied to the gate of the transistor device; wherein the second voltage level is chosen such that the transistor device is fully conducting when the second voltage level is applied to the gate of the transistor device; and wherein the third voltage level is chosen such that the gate-source voltage of the transistor device is smaller than a threshold voltage of the transistor device, when the third voltage level is applied to the gate of the transistor device, so that a reverse conductance drain-source voltage of the transistor device is reduced.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 4.0
- Percentile: 90.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.21739
- Patent Class: 327.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['10402472', '13463961', '14222992', '14708627', '14215243']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.7543513498914435
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.4631633159563614
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.7252325464979353
- Mean Citation Score: 174.27194400000005
- Max Citation Score: 179.46783
- Similarity Product: 143.01199361767172

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 0
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 0
- Combined Label: 0
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test