H-Bridge Motor Driver with External Protection Circuit

The low side channels are referenced to ground while the high side channels are floating. The gate driver outputs can source and sink up to 1A peak current pulses, permitting large gate-charge MOSFETs to be driven and/or high PWM frequencies to be utilized. In the schematic, HSS represents the switch that is used to charge the external high-side MOSFET through the GATE_HS pin. LSS represents the switch that is used to discharge the external high-side MOSFET through the GATE_HS pin that is parallel with an 18V typical protection zener. The device can actually operate with VCC up to 55V and VCC2 up to 28V. The IN_HSn and IN_LSn pins are input control pins used to control the gate outputs. These pins are 5V CMOS-compatible inputs with hysteresis. IN_HSn and IN_LSn independently control GATE_HSn and GATE_LSn, respectively.

H-bridge gate drivers have been widely used nowadays especially in automotive and industrial applications. This device effectively controls DC motors that can be used in industrial robots for motion control. In addition, this can be used to control automotive HVAC stepper motor that may be used in air recirculation system.