Driving an N-Channel MOSFET H-Bridge from a voltage doubler

I've been looking at driving an H-Bridge to raise the frequency of the mains voltage from 60 hz to somewhere between 60-120 hz.

I'm planning to use an Atmel Atiny84 to generate my clock frequency to drive an H Bridge. The mains voltage will be rectified by a full bridge rectifier, giving me nominally 240 VDC at up to 50 amps.

I have scavenged basically all the parts needed to do this, but from what I understand the highside of the H-Bridge requires either the use of P-channel MOSFETs or a voltage higher than the source voltage. This is because Vgs determines the conduction state of the MOSFET. So if the source is being fed at approximately +240 VDC, I need at least +252 VDC for most power MOSFETs to be saturated and fully conducting.

Most commercial circuits use a "charge pump" built into a large brick of silicion that spec. sheets are not available on. So my question is if I already have 240 VAC, can I just feed any of the common voltage doubler circuits and wind up with 480 VDC? The current I need for the gate is small, so capacitor size should not be an issue. I'd wind up with +240 V for Vgs if I did this, which is way too high for common power MOSFETs. But can I somehow feed this very high voltage into a common part like a 7815 to wind up with a Vgs of approximately +15 V ? This might require more components and be less effecient, but I don't really care.

• Maybe this is what you need fairchildsemi.com/datasheets/FA/FAN7382.pdf – Swarles Barkely Feb 16 '16 at 4:47
• Note also your DC voltage will be either 170V or 340V, but in no case 240V... – Brian Drummond Feb 16 '16 at 11:35
• @BrianDrummond Without load, the capacitors should charge to the line voltage * sqrt(2). The DC voltage will have significant ripple however, so its still nominally 240 VDC. – Eric Urban Feb 16 '16 at 14:36
• No. The caps will charge to 340V and decay a few volts (certainly not 100V) before the next peak. However this is necessary to generate 240V rms sinewave output. (presumably via PWM). It doesn't affect your question (see Andy and Rob's good answers) but will affect your component ratings. – Brian Drummond Feb 16 '16 at 14:48