What does high side and low side driver means?

What does high side and low side driver means?

High-Side vs. A low-side driver is placed between the load and ground, whereas a high-side driver, shown in 2(b), is placed between the load and the supply voltage. The low-side driver is often used for powertrain-related loads such as motors, solenoids, and heaters.

How do high side gate drivers work?

A gate driver is a power amplifier that accepts a low-power input from a controller IC and produces a high-current drive input for the gate of a high-power transistor such as an IGBT or power MOSFET. In essence, a gate driver consists of a level shifter in combination with an amplifier.

What is a high side output?

High Side/Low Side Drive A semiconductor switch placed in the upper circuit with respect to an external load is referred to as high-side drive (power supply side), and when mounted in the lower circuit is called low side drive (ground side).

What is a low side gate driver?

The low-side driver can be used to drive the low-side MOSFET of a boost converter. The driver uses a supply voltage, V in the range of 8~17 V. The outputs of the gate driver IC are the voltages provided to the gates of the MOSFETs (HO for high-side MOSFET and LO for the low-side MOSFET).

What is a low side switching system?

Low-side switching has one ground connection for both the load and its controller, thus avoiding ground potential differences (ground shifts) between the two when currents are high. Low-side switching therefore is more robust to ground noise than high-side switching.

What is a high-side gate driver?

Drive circuits for the high-side switches are called high-side drivers and are more complicated than low-side drivers because of the required voltage translation to the supply and because it is more difficult to turn off a floating switch. MOSFET Gate Drivers.

Why is a gate driver circuit required?

It also protects low voltage electronics from any damage due to faults on the high power side circuit and from human error on the control side. Many applications of power devices (e.g., converters where high power density and high efficiency are required) require an isolated gate drive circuit.