A High Voltage Dc-Dc Converter for HEVs with a Novel Floating Control Stage

High-side gate drivers to be used in EVs and HEVs should target high insulation voltage, as well as efficiency and monitoring capability. In traditional step-down converters, the entire control stage is referred to ground, thus either a pulse transformer or an isolated integrated gate driver is required. The paper proposes a buck converter having the entire control unit referred to the floating node. The design was carried out considering discrete components, which allows for low-cost and low-profile implementation. Simulations were conducted to validate the proposed converter, and to compare it with traditional high-side gate driver topologies. The overall efficiency results to be consistent with the other topologies, whereas the estimated occupied area and the cost, at PCB level, are both significantly lower.