So I got into this half bridge mosfet thing because my buddy kept raving about it. Figured I’d give it a shot for a power converter I was fiddling with. Dug out some old MOSFETs from my junk bin – think they were salvaged from a broken PC power supply – and slapped ’em on a breadboard. Hooked up a basic gate driver chip I had lying around, too. Wasn’t pretty, but hey, prototyping never is.
The messy start
First attempt went sideways real quick. Plugged it in and BAM – magic smoke show! Fried one MOSFET instantly. Realized I’d messed up the dead-time timing. These switches gotta take turns turning on/off, or they’ll just short everything out. My crappy function generator couldn’t handle precise delays, so I cobbled together a 555 timer circuit with diodes to hack the timing. Looked like spaghetti, but worked.
Why bother? The perks surprised me
- Less heat drama: Compared to my old single-transistor setup, the heat sinking was way easier. Each MOSFET only deals with part of the voltage stress, so they stayed cooler.
- Cheaper than expected: Only needing two MOSFETs instead of a fancy four-pack full-bridge saved cash. Scavenged parts kept costs near zero – broke hobbyist win!
- Surprisingly quiet: Once I nailed the switching timing, the electrical noise dropped big time. My scope showed cleaner signals than my previous buck converter attempts.
Why I’d pick this again
After burning three MOSFETs and a driver chip (RIP), the payoff clicked. This setup’s dead simple for mid-power stuff – think 100-500W. No overkill parts, easier troubleshooting. Used it in a solar charger last month, running smooth as butter.
Funny how I stumbled into this. Originally tried it ’cause my old boss at the auto shop insisted full-bridge was “pro tier.” Built one for an EV battery tester, and it kept overheating in his workshop. He called it garbage – till I showed him my janky half-bridge version idling cooler on a breadboard. Dude refused to believe salvaged parts could outperform his “professional” kit. Quit that job six months later when he wouldn’t greenlight simpler solutions. Now I blog this stuff just to spite him.