The bias supply voltage to be applied to the VDD pin of the device should never exceed the values listed in the Electrical Characteristics table. However, different power switches demand different voltage levels to be applied at the gate terminals for effective turnon and turnoff. With certain power switches, a positive gate voltage may be required for turnon and a negative gate voltage may be required for turnoff, in which case the VDD bias supply equals the voltage differential. With a wide operating range from 8 V to 17 V, the device can be used to drive a variety of power switches, such as Si MOSFETs, IGBTs, and wide-bandgap power semiconductors (such as GaN, certain types of which allow no higher than 6 V to be applied to the gate terminals).