Synchronous rectifier driving circuit based on voltage-driven method with energy recovery

Abstract

A new synchronous rectifier (SR) gate drive circuit is presented in this study. The proposed SR driver generates the driving signal according to the SR voltage polarity without using any external control signal. Also, it can turn off the SR with delay and keeps the SR on after its drain source voltage becomes positive. In addition, this driver recovers part of the driving energy in a resonant manner. The proposed SR driving circuit is suitable for some zero voltage transition (ZVT) synchronous buck converters. It can also be used for some high-frequency resonant converters and high-frequency discontinuous conduction mode pulse-width modulation circuits. In this study, the proposed driver is applied to a ZVT synchronous buck converter and the presented experimental results confirm the theoretical analysis. © The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2014.