Techniques for starting up and shutting down a H-bridge are provided. In an example, a method can include ramping an internal reference voltage of the H-bridge between a first level and a second level during a first interval, controlling an output voltage of each of a first half-bridge of the H-bridge and a second half-bridge of the H-bridge independently during the first interval based on the reference voltage, and controlling the first half-bridge and second half-bridge as a full H-bridge during a second timed interval.