FIG. 1 illustrates a known implementation of a transistor driver in the form of a conventional voltage doubler 30. In this implementation, a voltage source 20 electrically communicates a source voltage VS to voltage doubler 30, which in turn electrically communicates an unregulated drive voltage VUD to a transistor array of various well known types of transistors as illustrated in FIG. 1. Under all operating conditions, voltage doubler 30 doubles the source voltage VS to thereby generate the unregulated drive voltage VUD. Thus, one drawback to the use of voltage doubler 30 as a transistor driver is the potential to generate unregulated driver voltage VUD with a magnitude exceeding a safe operating level for the transistors (e.g., unregulated driver voltage VUD having a magnitude of 32.0 volts when source voltage VS has a magnitude of 16.0 volts). As such, to avoid any damage to the transistors, the source voltage VS can be kept at low voltage levels. However, these low voltage levels may not be suitable for the operating environment of voltage source 20 (e.g., an employment of voltage source 20 within an automobile).
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds