According to one embodiment, there is provided a high voltage drive circuit comprising drive and sense electrodes formed substantially in a single plane. The device effects signal transfer between drive and receive circuits through the drive and sense electrodes by capacitive means, and permits high voltage devices, such as IGBTs, to be driven thereby without the use of high voltage transistors, thereby eliminating the need to use expensive fabrication processes such as SOI when manufacturing high voltage gate drive circuits and ICs. The device may be formed in a small package using, by way of example, using CMOS or other conventional low-cost semiconductor fabrication and packaging processes.