Switch with a first switching element in the form of a bipolar transistor

US5565810A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Temic Telefunken Microelectronik · DE

Inventors

• Hermann Hammel · Rot am See, DE
• Horst Hafner · Heilbronn, DE
• Jurgen Schnabel · Leingarten, DE
• Henrik Gutsch · Heilbronn, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Apr 7, 1995
• Grant date: Oct 15, 1996
• Expiry date: Apr 7, 2015

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H03K17/567
• WIPO field: Basic communication processes
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A switch is described with a bipolar transistor as first switching element having a high breakdown voltage when operated in the reverse direction. This can be accomplished by a second switching element provided in the switch, a switching transistor, e.g. an MOS transistor, through which the base and the collector of the bipolar transistor are joined together, is activated in the reverse mode of the switch, i.e. when the bipolar transistor is in inverse mode, in such a way that the second switching element becomes conductive. The collector-emitter breakdown voltage of the bipolar transistor, i.e. its maximum permissible collector-emitter voltage, is thus brought closer to its higher base-emitter breakdown voltage.