AUTOMOTIVE POWER CONVERTER WITH RAIL-POWERED CLAMPING CIRCUITRY

A power converter has a pair of series connected switches defining a phase leg, a pair of gate driver circuits that respectively provide power to gates of the series connected switches, a positive rail electrically connected with the phase leg, and a clamping circuit including a clamping switch. The clamping circuit, responsive to one of the gate driver circuits being de-energized, activates the clamping switch with energy from the positive rail to clamp a gate of one of the series connected switches associated with the one of the gate driver circuits to another terminal of the one of the series connected switches.