ADVANCED SHUTDOWN DURING FAULT-CURRENT CONDITIONS FOR SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES

A drive circuit includes power devices that provide current to a load. At least a portion of the power devices are disposed in a first voltage domain of the drive circuit; a controller circuit configured to provide control signals to activate and deactivate the power devices, wherein the controller circuit is disposed in a second voltage domain separated from the first voltage domain by a first voltage isolation barrier; a smart gate driver configured to transfer a control signal from the second voltage domain to another voltage domain; and an over-current detection circuit disposed in the first voltage domain and configured to produce a fault signal when detecting a current fault condition of the power devices and send the fault signal as a soft-shutdown signal to the smart gate driver. The smart gate driver performs a soft-shutdown of the power devices in response to the soft-shutdown signal.