Controller IC Is Self-Oscillating

Representing the firm's third generation of 600V, self-oscillating, half-bridge controllers, IR2153 chip integrates a 555-type oscillator circuit with the 600V half-bridge gate driver to drive two output FETs or IGBTs. The IR2153 has a micro-power start-up mode that requires only 150 µA of quiescent current and a 1/8W resistor to get noise-free start-up from the high voltage bus. Normal operation runs off a charge pump supply after the start-up sequence. A soft switching technique allows the half-bridge power circuit to achieve nearly lossless switching while driving inductive or resonant loads as long as self-commutation occurs within the dead time band. The IR2153 has an accurate and temperature independent dead time specification to promote repeatable soft switching over wide operating conditions. A shutdown mode turns off both output switches for protection against fault conditions. Reference design kits are available for electronic ballasts.