Dual-Gate Switch Transistor With Redundant Gate Driver Paths
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional switch devices in safety-critical environments, such as automotive applications, lack redundancy in control signal paths, which can compromise functional safety when handling high voltages and currents.
Innovation Solution
A dual gate switch transistor with independent first and second gate driver circuits, where each gate controls part of the transistor's channel, providing redundant and diverse control signal paths without merging them outside the transistor, thereby ensuring redundancy and enhancing functional safety.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional single gate driver circuit is used to control the switch, then the device complexity is reduced, but the reliability and functional safety are compromised due to lack of redundancy
Solution Approach 1:
The control function is segmented into two independent gate driver circuits (first and second gate driver circuits) that separately control different gates of the dual gate switch transistor. This segmentation provides redundancy and diversity in control paths, ensuring that if one control path fails, the other can still safely control the switch, thereby resolving the contradiction between reliability and complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The dual gate switch transistor acts as an intermediary element that combines the control signals from two independent gate driver circuits. The transistor's unique structure allows it to integrate multiple control inputs while maintaining independent control paths, enabling redundancy without requiring complex external combination logic circuits.
2Reliability
If two independent control signal paths are provided with separate gate driver circuits, then the redundancy and functional safety are improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the control functions of two independent gate driver circuits into a single dual gate switch transistor device. By integrating both control paths within one transistor structure, the patent achieves redundancy and diversity while avoiding the need for separate transistors and complex external logic circuits to combine the control signals, thus limiting the increase in device complexity.
3Reliability
If conventional switch transistor with single gate is used, then the ease of manufacture is improved, but the functional safety requirements cannot be fulfilled
Solution Approach 1:
The transistor channel is segmented into two separate gates (first gate and second gate), each controlled by independent gate driver circuits. This segmentation enables diverse control paths and safe switch-off capabilities required by functional safety standards, while the underlying transistor structure remains based on conventional manufacturing processes, thereby balancing reliability improvement with manufacturability.
Data Source
AI summary
Switch devices using switch transistors with dual gates are provided. The dual gates may be controlled independently from each other by first and second gate driver circuits.