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Quick Help Table
To aid in locating possible solutions to problems which can
occur in applying the HIP2500 and similar high voltage IC
gate-drivers, the following table is included.
Layout Problems and Effects
PROBLEM
EFFECT
Bootstrap circuit path
too long
Inductance can cause voltage on bootstrap
capacitor to ring, slowing down refresh
and/or causing an overvoltage on boot-
strap bias supply.
Lack of tight power
circuit layout (long cir-
cuit path between up-
per/lower power
switches)
Can cause ringing on the phase lead (V
S
)
causing V
S
to ring excessively below the
COM terminal causing possible malfunc-
tion of the HIP2500 due to excessive
charge being pulled out of the substrate.
Excessive gate lead
lengths
Can cause gate voltage ringing and subse-
quent modulation of the drain current and
impairs the effectiveness of the sink driver
from minimizing Miller Effect when an op-
posing switch is being rapidly turned on.
Floating V
SS
with re-
spect to COM. These
shouldbetiedtogether.
Can cause drive pulses to disappear or ex-
cessive current flow between V
SS
and
COM.
H
SWITCHING FREQUENCY (kHz)
10
100
1000
0.001
0.01
0.1
1
V
BIAS
= 15V, C
L
= 1000pF, T
A
= 25
o
C
= 400V
= 300V
= 200V
V
S
= 100V
FIGURE 11. HIGH VOLTAGE POWER DISSIPATION vs
SWITCHING FREQUENCY
General Problems and Effects
PROBLEM
EFFECT
Low V
DD
and V
BS
Low supply voltages can cause U/V lockout
and blocking of gate drive.
High V
DD
and V
BS
Causes wasted bias supply power due to
overcharging the gates of the external
switches and can result in reduced reliabili-
ty due to decreased voltage margin to Max.
bias voltage rating and increased operating
temperature of the IC.
C
F
too small
Insufficientchargetodriveexternalpowerde-
vices and/or possible U/V lockout can occur.
C
F
too large
The bootstrap capacitor may not charge
sufficiently to overcome U/V lockout level
and gate drive never occurs. Either de-
crease C
F
or increase the refresh time allot-
ted to charge C
F
.
R
GATE
x C
F
time constant too long causing
excessive power device switching losses.
Also R
GATE
too big may fail to hold gate low
when the opposing power device turns on,
tending to either turn on the device prema-
turely or slow desired turn-off, due to the
Miller Effect. May need to bypass R
GATE
with an anti-parallel signal diode.
R
GATE
too big
R
GATE
too small
R
GATE
too small tends to reduce effective
dead time and increase shoot-through ten-
dency. Also switching dv/dt increases EMI.
Negativeorinsufficient
dead-time
Can cause external power devices and the
IC to fail, possibly destroying circuit board
traces also. This also tends to severely re-
duce “refresh” time (see C
F
too large,
above).
HIP2500 IC gets too
hot
Trying to drive too large an external power
device. Reduce the switching frequency,
the high voltage bus or find a power device
with a lower equivalent gate capacitance.
You may also be able to increase air flow
over the IC and/or add heat-sinking.
Unexplained arcing in
vicinity of pins 3, 4 and
5 of IC
Poorly cleaned, dirty or improper attention
to strike and creepage distances for the bus
voltage level being used may cause this
damage or similar damage between traces
going to these points.
Application Note 9010