Isolated capacitively coupled MOS driver circuit with bidirectional signal transfer

In this paper a driver circuit for isolated control of power-MOS transistors is presented. It provides a bidirectional signal transfer for control and status information that is achieved with a capacitive coupling technique. It features fast switching and active protection of the power MOS without the need of an auxiliary power supply. A hybrid assembly provides high isolation voltage and true safety isolation. Monolithical integration with SOI process technology is also possible. The operation principle and experimental results are presented.