Uncomplicated Dead-time Generation Designed for H-Bridge Drivers by Logic Gates Driving Linear Actuators

The H-bridge (HB) driver design with high efficiency is one of the most challenging issues in power systems that drive AC/DC loads. HB driver circuit based upon complementary MOSFET type used as a driving system of DC motor, power converters, and battery charger for electrical vehicles. In Driving DC motors, dead-time (DT) generation has been considered a major factor such as preventive power line short-circuit (shoot-through) over high and low-side MOSFETs. In this paper, the HB driver is designed for linear actuators with consideration for the prevention of shoot-through. The propagation delay of logic gates are used to postpone the arrival gate drive signal for high/low side MOSFETs resulting in short circuit elimination on the DC source. As mentioned, logic gates’ propagation delay by their values causes interruption between the high and low-side power switches gate drive signal resulting in shoot-through elimination. Although the existence of DT influences the performance of the rotational speed and output torque of a DC motor by increasing the distortion and pulse interval, Linear actuators due to low-velocity linear motion do not require the PWM control, therefore DT has no substantial effect on driver performance. Simulation and experimental results validate the method proposed in this paper. According to the specifications of the circuit designed in this paper, for loads that do not need rotational speed control, logic gates with proper propagation delay can be chosen to eliminate short circuits in complementary MOS switches without requiring DT compensation methods.