Power Switch Driver Tristate Blanking During ON/OFF Transitions
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Solution Overview
Problem
Power switches can be controlled into undefined states by tristate requests from driver circuits, leading to potential system-level problems and safety concerns.
Innovation Solution
Implementing tristate blanking periods in driver circuits to ensure power switches are fully ON or fully OFF before entering a tristate, using pre-defined or dynamically measured intervals to avoid undefined states during transitions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If the driver circuit immediately enters tristate upon receiving a tristate request, then the driver circuit responds quickly to protection requests, but the power switch may be controlled into an undefined state during charge or discharge periods
Solution Approach 1:
The driver circuit performs preliminary action by detecting whether a tristate request arrives during a safe period (ON or OFF period) or during a transition period (charge or discharge period). Based on this detection, the circuit prepares differently: immediately entering tristate during safe periods, or delaying until transition completion during unsafe periods. This preliminary detection and conditional preparation resolves the contradiction by anticipating the timing context before executing the tristate action.
2Reliability
If the driver circuit waits for completion of tristate blanking period before entering tristate during charge or discharge periods, then the power switch remains in a defined state, but the response time to protection requests is delayed
Solution Approach 1:
The driver circuit implements dynamic behavior by adapting its response to tristate requests based on the current operational phase of the power switch. During ON or OFF periods, the circuit responds immediately with zero delay. During charge or discharge periods, the circuit dynamically delays the response until the transition completes. This dynamic adaptation resolves the contradiction by optimizing response time based on real-time system state rather than applying a fixed delay policy.
Data Source
AI summary
This disclosure is directed to systems, circuits, and techniques for controlling a power switch and for executing tristate requests. Controlling a power switch may comprise delivering drive signals from a driver circuit to the power switch to control ON/OFF switching of the power switch, wherein an ON signal causes a charge period followed by an ON period for the power switch and wherein an OFF signal causes a discharge period followed by an OFF period for the power switch; and receiving an external tristate request to place the driver circuit into a tristate. The driver circuit may immediately enter the tristate in response to the tristate request being received during the ON period or the OFF period, whereas the driver circuit may wait for completion of a tristate blanking period prior to entering tristate in response to the tristate request being received during the charge period or the discharge period.