Gate driver

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

An IGBT Turn-ON Concept Offering Low Losses Under Motor Drive dv/dt Constraints Based on Diode Current Adaption

Abstract: In this paper, a new low-loss turn- on concept for the silicon insulated-gate bipolar transistor (Si-IGBT) in combination with silicon p-i-n diode is presented. The concept is tailored for two-level motor converters in the 100 kW to 1 MW range under the constraint that the output voltages slopes are limited in order to protect the motor windings. Moreover, analyses of the IGBT turn- on and diode reverse recovery voltage slopes are presented concluding that the diode reverse recovery is the worst case. The concept includes a low-cost measurement of the free-wheeling diode current and temperature by the gate driver without necessity of acquiring this information from the converter control board. By using this concept, the output dv/dt at the diode turn- off can be kept approximately constant regardless of the commutated current and junction temperature. Hence, the switching losses could be decreased for the currents and temperatures where the voltage slopes are lower when using a conventional gate driver optimized for the worst case. Moreover, results are shown for one such power semiconductor, showing a total switching loss reduction of up to 28% in comparison with a gate driver without current and temperature measurement. Finally, this concept is particularly suitable for high power semiconductor modules in half-bridge configuration which are recently proposed by several suppliers.

Liquid crystal display of field sequential color type and method for driving the same

Abstract: Disclosed are a liquid crystal display, which can increase a design margin upon designing a driving timing chart, improve picture quality characteristics and reduce power consumption, and a method for driving the same. The liquid crystal display of a field sequential color type comprises an LCD panel having a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix form defined by gate lines and data lines crossing each other, a sub-field time setting unit for selecting 1 horizontal period according to an externally input frame frequency and a first user-set signal and determining a wait period and a flash period corresponding to the 1 horizontal period according to second and third user-set signals, a timing controller for producing and outputting a gate control signal and a data control signal corresponding to the 1 horizontal period and the wait period and a light source control signal corresponding to the wait period and a re-aligned pixel data, a gate driver for sequentially outputting a scan pulse to the gate lines according to the gate control signal, a data driver for outputting a data voltage to the data lines every 1 horizontal period according to the data control signal, and a backlight unit for sequentially outputting red, green and blue light to the pixels, respectively, according to the control of the timing controller.

The Impact of Gate-Driver Parameters Variation and Device Degradation in the PV-Inverter Lifetime

Abstract: This paper introduces a reliability-oriented design tool for a new generation of grid connected PV-inverters. The proposed design tool consists of a real field Mission Profile (MP) model (for one year operation in USA-Arizona), a PV-panel model, a grid connected PV-inverter model, an Electro-Thermal model and the lifetime model of the power semiconductor devices. A simulation model able to consider a one year real field operation conditions (solar irradiance and ambient temperature) is developed. Thus, one year estimation of the converter devices thermal loading distribution is achieved and is further used as an input to a lifetime model. The proposed reliability oriented design tool is used to study the impact of MP-variation, Gate-Driver (GD) parameters variation and device degradation in the PV- inverter lifetime. The obtained results indicate that in order to improve the accuracy of the lifetime estimation it is crucial to consider also the device degradation feedback. Moreover the MP of the field where the PV-inverter is operating and the GD- parameters selection has an important impact in the converter reliability and it should be considered from the design stage to better optimize the converter design margin.

Internal combustion engine ignition device and igniter for same

Abstract: An internal combustion engine ignition device able to suppress misfires etc. at abnormal times and achieving smaller size and lower cost, provided with an IGBT (switching device SW), a current limiting circuit for limiting a primary current running through the IGBT to within a predetermined value, a fast gate voltage drop circuit for making the gate voltage of the IGBT fast drop to an extent where spark discharge occurs at the spark plug, an abnormality detecting circuit for detecting an abnormal state of an igniter or electronic control unit and outputting an abnormality detection signal, and a slow gate voltage drop circuit having a gate voltage feed cutoff circuit for cutting off the feed of the gate voltage at an abnormal time and a discharge circuit for discharging the gate capacitor charge of the IGBT to make the gate voltage slowly drop to an extent where no spark discharge will occur at the spark plug.

High temperature half bridge gate driver

Abstract: A half bridge gate driving circuit for providing gate driving circuits in a bi-hecto celcius (200 degrees celcius) operating environment having multiple functions including combinations of multiple level logic inputs, noise immunity, fault protection, overlap protection, pulse modulation, high-frequency modulation with transformer based isolation, high-frequency demodulation back to pulse width modulation, deadtime generator, level shifter for high side transistor, overcurrent protection, and undervoltage lockout.