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Old June 5th 08, 05:32 PM posted to rec.radio.amateur.homebrew
SpamHog SpamHog is offline
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First recorded activity by RadioBanter: Sep 2006
Posts: 39
Default voltage comparator for MOSFET driver in HF CW TX?

I'm playing with 600V ex-PSU MOSFETs (with very high Ciss) as HF
switching finals, with some success.

I'd like to put together a driver that takes sinusoidal input into a
fast voltage comparator, and produce a variable pulse-width low-Z
output that could be used to efficiently trim the output power.

With such a driver, a suitable slow data stream into a DAC could be
used to generate a variable control voltage that could in turn cause
the RF output to vary as to conveniently simulate ionospheric fading.
(Just kidding. I promise).

I read specs of many possible ICs types but I am at loss as to which
common and inexpensive types may be suitable, and found no examples of
specific types used in that specific role.

I had klutzed with DC-offsetting a sinusoidal signal into an ugly
nonlinear driver to that effect, but the idea of using a comparator is
from Paul Harden N5AN (who is CCed):

http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~pharden/hobby/_ClassDEF2.pdf

Any suggestions?

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Also, did anyone press into HF service a standard suite of PWM and
MOSFET driver ICs used in automotive applications?

I saw operating frequencies in the order of 400kHz, but with driver
transition times in the 10-20ns range, which is already promising -
although perhaps I would not try them on a MOSFET totempole at 10MHz,
or at least not right away...

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TIA!

Filippo N1JPR/I2