A Bootstrap Drive and Level Shifting Method for Buck-boost Converter with NMOS as the Main Switch Transistor

Abstract

In the design of DC-DC power supply, compared with a P-type metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (PMOS) with the same width-to-length ratio, N-type metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (NMOS) as the main switching transistor greatly reduces the on-off loss and improves the conversion efficiency of the system. This article introduces a gate voltage bootstrap and level shifter circuit for a Buck-Boost DC-DC converter with NMOS main switching transistor. The drive voltage between the gate and the source pole of the main switch transistor can be stabilized, which is independent of the switch junction voltage (V SW) and solves the problem that the drive voltage of the gate is too high or too low due to the influence of the bootstrap voltage in the traditional structure. Based on the 0.18 μm BCD process, the circuit design and physical implementation of the proposed method are verified. The test results show that the bootstrap drive circuit functions normally and the bootstrap drive voltage is about 5 V when the input voltage is 2.9~4.5 V and the output voltage is −2~-5 V. In addition, the proposed gate-level shifting circuit can reduce the drive delay of the main switch transistor to less than 12 ns.