Gate driver

About: Gate driver is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 7532 publications have been published within this topic receiving 75854 citations.

Medium voltage power converter design and demonstration using 15 kV SiC N-IGBTs

Abstract: This paper summarizes the different steps that have been undertaken to design medium voltage power converters using the state-of-the-art 15 kV SiC N-IGBTs. The 11 kV switching characterization results, 11 kV high dv/dt gate driver validation, and the heat-run test results of the SiC IGBT at 10 kV, 550 W/cm2 (active area) have been recently reported as individual topics. In this paper, it is attempted to link all these individual topics and present them as a complete subject from the double pulse tests to the converter design, for evaluating these novel high voltage power semiconductor devices. In addition, the demonstration results of two-level H-Bridge and three-level NPC converters, both at 10 kV dc input, are being presented for the first-time. Lastly, the performance of two-chip IGBT modules for increased current capability and demonstration of three-level poles, built using these modules, at 10 kV dc input with sine-PWM and square-PWM modulation for rectifier and dc-dc stages of a three-phase solid state transformer are presented.

Isolation design considerations for power supply of medium voltage silicon carbide gate drivers

Abstract: Single switch capable of blocking 10 kV and higher voltages are presently being developed and demand improved gate drivers for their functioning. Induction based gate drivers have been the foremost solutions in this regard. Design challenges that have been outlined for these drivers are low coupling capacitance, strong magnetic coupling and smaller dimensions with isolation not considered in depth. In this paper, first isolation requirements and its physical realization guidelines are provided from IEC 61800-5-1 for electric drives application. Based on study, two system insulation designs: single and double PCB are derived for lower MV and higher MV system respectively. Current loop gate driver with double PCB design is found to be practical and economical solution for higher MV power electronics systems. Afterwards, shortcomings of three state of art induction solutions at both system and magnetic link level is discussed. Improved transformers with primary MV cable providing mandatory solid insulation are fabricated. It is shown through impedance measurements that the cable has negative effect on the magnetizing inductance and coupling capacitance compared to state of art transformer solution. At the end, both set of transformers are tested with 64 kV impulse and 32 kV overvoltage with only improved transformers showing positive results.

Gate drive circuit for insulated gate semiconductor device and flash controller using the circuit

Abstract: A gate drive circuit comprises first and second reverse-blocking switches, each composed of a serially connected transistor (101, 102) and diode (105, 106), which are connected in series between a gate drive power source (V GG ) and a ground for switching a gate drive current of an insulated gate semiconductor device (3). An inductance element (108) are provided between the junction point of the first and second reverse-blocking switches and the gate of the insulated gate semiconductor device (3) to induce LC resonance by the inductance of the element (108) and the gate input capacitance of the insulate gate semiconductor device (3). Thus, both small peak switching current of the switches and high speed switching of the semiconductor device (3) can be attained. Further, a flash controller can be reduced in its size and cost by using the above gate drive circuit for on/off driving an insulated gate semiconductor device inserted in a flash main circuit.

Series connection of IGBTs with active voltage balancing

Abstract: This paper describes a gate drive circuit for series-connected IGBTs in high voltage applications. The control criterion of the gate drive circuit is to actively limit the voltages during switching transients, while minimizing the switching transient and losses. In order to achieve the control criterion, a closed loop control scheme is adopted. The closed loop control injects current to an IGBT gate as required to limit the IGBT collector-emitter voltage to a predefined level. The performance of the gate drive circuit is examined experimentally by the series connection of three IGBTs with conventional snubber circuits. The experimental results show the voltage balancing by an active control with wide variations in loads and imbalance conditions.

Design of Integrated Amorphous-Silicon Thin-Film Transistor Gate Driver

Abstract: A thorough study on the gate driver integrated with hydrogenated amorphous-silicon thin-film transistors (a-Si:H TFTs) for active-matrix flat-panel display (AM-FPD) is carried out in this work. The single stage circuit of the a-Si:H gate driver consists of input, pull-up, pull-down, and low-level holding units. The operation principle of the driver is described in detail. The subtle static and dynamic characteristics of the a-Si:H TFT based circuit are analyzed systematically for the first time. The long term reliability issue is also addressed. Design equations for determining the device sizes of the circuit are derived. The TFT-LCD panels integrated with the designed gate driver are fabricated to verify the design efficiency.