Howdy - I am working on a PCB that will sit between some high voltage battery packs (~55VDC) and switch them on and off so as to protect them/turn on a system. I would like to do this with an N-channel FET switching the high side (not low side) of the batteries. These FETs need to be able to handle ~10-20A with as little power loss as possible.
To get the N-FET gate voltage high enough (~65-75V methinks, though I haven't had a chance to choose a FET just yet) - I was hoping to find an N-FET driver IC. I've seen parts for much lower voltages, but can't seem to find any for this high of a voltage. Does such a beast exist? Digi-Key tells me that such a beast does not exist, but it is possible that Digi-Key is lying (or even that there is a part out there in this world that Digi-Key doesn't stock - but well, we all know how likely that is...)
How else would I drive the gate high enough? I'm thinking some sort of voltage doubler scheme, or maybe just a boost converter to get the voltage high enough, and then switch the gate between ground and that high voltage with an N-FET and a P-FET (respectively).
Or is this all crazy talk and there's some easy, straightforward way to do this? Thanks!
-Michael