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How can I switch a high-side transistor from logic referenced to ground?

Problem: I have a logic signal (represented by SW1), say from a microcontroller, that is either 0V or some low voltage , maybe 5V or
3.3V. I have a higher voltage supply (V1) and a switching device (M1) on the high side of that supply, connected to a load.

sim ulate this circuit Schem atic created using CircuitLab

Sometimes, there is an H- bridge , or half an H-bridge, and I need to control the high-side transistor (s) (M2), but I think basically it's
the same problem:

sim ulate this circuit

The difficulty is that my logic output is only 0V or 5V, but I need higher voltages, like maybe 50V and 45V, to switch the high-side
transistor. I understand that the precise voltages required will depend on the transistors I select -- I'm just wondering how to solve this
problem, generally.
Is there a simple way to do this if my application is not very demanding? If I need to do the switching rapidly, say for a PWM
application at 50kHz, is there a more complicated way to do it?
mosfet

h-bridge

level-shifting

edited Aug 1 4 '1 3 at 1 4 :53

asked Aug 1 4 '1 3 at 1 4 :3 8

Phil Frost
2 1 .6 k
33

hint: I know the answer. I'm looking for a canonical answer for the FAQ.

95

Phil Frost Aug 1 4 '1 3 at 1 4 :4 1

Is y our top diagram correct with the supply and load? Dam n those strange sy m bols. Andy aka Aug 1 4 '1 3
at 1 4 :4 7
@Andy aka err...is this right? These sy m bols alway s look wrong to m e

Phil Frost Aug 1 4 '1 3 at 1 4 :54

Is this to use a high side driv er application? EwokNightm ares Aug 1 4 '1 3 at 1 5:01
@EwokNightm ares I'm not sure what y ou m ean.

Phil Frost Aug 1 4 '1 3 at 1 5:4 9

5 Answers
Aside from IC and isolated solutions (e.g. high side switch ICs, transformers, opto, etc - which
is what you'd usually go for nowadays), one simple solution is a reasonably fast discrete PMOS
driver circuit like this:

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4/9/2014

mosfet - How can I switch a high-side transistor from logic referenced to ground? - Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange

Obviously you can just use the one NPN version, but the push pull increases drive capability.
This is just the rough idea, divider can be adjusted and protection added to ensure Vgs tolerance
is met. Q1's emitter resistor is to prevent it saturating and lengthening the turn off time.
Simulation at 1MHz - I added the gate voltage (red trace), note it only swings ~7V, it follows
the Q2/Q3 base voltage (a zener can be added as mentioned if needed):

edited Aug 1 5 '1 3 at 1 4 :3 7

answered Aug 1 4 '1 3 at 2 0:56

Oli Glaser
4 0.1 k
2

29

74

I like it. I would think an im portant feature of the push-pull bey ond speed is the fact that it looks as though
it would lim it the effect of gate-drain capacitance. Without that, I would think there could be situations
where gate-drain capacitance could cause the gate-source to exceed the Absolute Maxim um Rating.
supercat Aug 1 4 '1 3 at 2 0:59
I think y ou'd need to float the driv er circuit up to about 3 5V to av oid FET destruction v ia gate v oltage
ov erload. Andy aka Aug 1 4 '1 3 at 2 1 :3 2
@Andy : see the gate trace, it doesn't drop to 0V - it follows the R1 /R4 div ider v oltage. Oli Glaser Aug 1 4
'1 3 at 2 1 :4 3

@OliGlaser so it does y ou clev er person Andy aka Aug 1 4 '1 3 at 2 2 :1 9

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How about a pull-up for the M1's gate (the P-FET) and an NFET (M2) from that gate to ground? If you power M2 you pull M1's gate low, switching it on.
If M2 is off the pull-up resistor ensures M1 is switched off.
More details: P-FET M1 is switched on if its gate becomes a few volts lower than the source
(the arrow). ANd N-FET M2 is switched on if its gate becomes a few volts higher than the
source. So if you apply a high voltage to M2's gate it will be on, pulling the gate of M1 low. This
creates the required voltage drop between gate and source to switch M1 on. So applying a
voltage to M2 will switch M1 on.
If you make the gate of M2 low it will switch off. Then the gate of M1 will be pulled high by
R1, and there won't be a voltage difference between gate and source. Then M1 will switch off.
edited Aug 1 5 '1 3 at 8:00

answered Aug 1 4 '1 3 at 1 4 :4 7

Federico Russo
3 ,59 0
18
64

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I don't really understand what y ou m ean. Can y ou draw a schem atic and explain how it works? I'm just
learning electronics. Phil Frost Aug 1 4 '1 3 at 1 4 :4 9
@PhilFrost: I added a schem atic and m ore details about the working. Federico Russo Aug 1 4 '1 3 at 1 5:1 3

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@EwokNightm ares: I m issed the PWM frequency in the question, but y ou're right. The resistor v alue m ust
be m uch lower, m ay be 1 kohm (depends on the FET). Federico Russo Aug 1 4 '1 3 at 1 5:1 8
@PhilFrost: You would need a FET with \$V_{GS(m ax)}\$ of 50V, y es. I don't know how com m on these are.
Alternativ ely y ou can add a resistor between the gate of M1 and M2 , so that the resistors div ide the 50V to
a lower v alue. Federico Russo Aug 1 4 '1 3 at 1 5:53

There are few basic solutions:

Gate transformer: you will be able to control both transistors in a leg with one transformer
but the transformer itself may be hard to design.

Fully isolated gate drivers: simple but expensive solution as you will need to provide
isolated power to high side gate driver(s). This means using expensive DC/DC converters or a
transformer with multiple isolated secondary windings.
Bootstrap circuit : the boost capacitors provide power for high-side gate drivers. These caps
are charged when low-side mosfet is on. This is a cheap solution but you must be sure to
properly start-up the circuit. First turn-on all bottom mosfets to charge the boost caps. Only
then can you properly start the converter.

answered Aug 1 4 '1 3 at 2 1 :1 9

Szy m on Bczkowski

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mosfet - How can I switch a high-side transistor from logic referenced to ground? - Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange
Szy m on Bczkowski
1 ,9 1 8
3
16

This is m y fav ourite answer. For a start the LTC4 4 4 0 is an awesom e chip and will, apply equal delay s to
both top and bottom fets thus not forcing a significant conduction ov erlap. Plus I'd still go for a transform er
driv e because it can driv e P channel or N channel with a few refinem ents not shown in the abov e.
Andy aka Aug 1 4 '1 3 at 2 2 :2 6

Neat, but all these are using N-channel FETs on the high side. I'm using P-channel FETs in the question.
Phil Frost Aug 1 5 '1 3 at 1 1 :51
With these gate driv er circuits y ou do not hav e to use Pfets. You can adapt them all, or ev en sim plify them
(see Oli's answer and app note AN-9 4 0 from IR), to suit high side Pfet. But in reality Nfets are m uch better
and it is worth adding som e com plexity in gate circuit to hav e a all Nfet design. Sm aller BOM and sm aller
losses are realy worth it. Szy m on Bczkowski Aug 1 5 '1 3 at 1 5:08

If you don't need a very high switching speed, an optocoupler will do the trick. If the switching
voltage is high, you might need a zener diode to make sure you don't exceed the Vgs spec for
the FET.

sim ulate this circuit Schem atic created using CircuitLab

answered Aug 1 5 '1 3 at 1 5:04
GT.
396

With this circuit, if there's a fault that causes y ou to lose power on the low v oltage side, the switch will fail
closed. Which is cool if that's what y ou want, but I'd guess it's m ore com m on to want the switch to fail open.
The Photon Aug 1 5 '1 3 at 1 5:2 8

I'm going for the high power and fast PWM end of the question because its the most difficult to
solve as a design. I deleted yesterday's answer not because it was wrong but because this is a
more refined idea: -

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mosfet - How can I switch a high-side transistor from logic referenced to ground? - Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange

After the schmitt trigger has restored the control waveforms I'd use a standard push-pull
MOSFET driver and, due to the slight asymmetry in the rails it will produce (say) a 12V active
drive to the gate with a 2V reverse drive for switching the gate off quickly.
I would use the same driver topology on both FETs so that any delays are equal to both top
and bottom FETs.
edited Aug 1 6 '1 3 at 1 6 :3 5

answered Aug 1 5 '1 3 at 1 0:2 8

Andy aka
4 0.8k
1

16

58

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