Projects per year
Abstract
Active gate driving has been demonstrated to beneficially shape switching waveforms in Si- and SiC-based power converters. For faster GaN power devices with sub-10-ns switching transients, however, reported variable gate driving has so far been limited to altering a single drive parameter once per switching event, either during or outside of the transient. This paper demonstrates a gate driver with a timing resolution and range of output resistance levels that surpass those of existing gate drivers or arbitrary waveform generators. It is shown to permit active gate driving with a bandwidth that is high enough to shape a GaN switching during the transient. The programmable gate driver has integrated high-speed memory, control logic, and multiple parallel output stages. During switching transients, the gate driver can activate a near-arbitrary sequence of pull-up or pull-down output resistances between 0.12 Ω and 64 Ω. A hybrid of clocked and asynchronous control logic with 150-ps delay elements achieves an effective resistance update rate of 6.7 GHz during switching events. This active gate driver is evaluated in a 1-MHz bridge-leg converter using EPC2015 GaN FETs. The results show that aggressive manipulation of the gate-drive resistance at sub-ns resolutions can profile gate waveforms of the GaN FET, and thereby beneficially shape the switch-node voltage waveform in the power circuit. Examples of open-loop active gate driving are demonstrated that maintain the low switching loss of constant-strength gate driving, whilst reducing overshoot, oscillation, and EMI-generating high-frequency spectral content.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Article number | 7880639 |
Pages (from-to) | 581-594 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics |
Volume | 33 |
Issue number | 1 |
Early online date | 17 Mar 2017 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jan 2018 |
Keywords
- Active gate driver
- programmable gate resistance
- gate signal profiling
- GaN FETs
- gate overshoot
- oscillation
- electromagnetic interference (EMI)
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'A 6.7-GHz Active Gate Driver for GaN FETs to Combat Overshoot, Ringing, and EMI'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 1 Finished
-
Pulse quietening at source for higher-frequency power and signal switching
Dalton, J. J. O., Dymond, H. C. P., Liu, D., McNeill, J. N., Pamunuwa, I. D. B., Wang, J., Hollis, S. & Stark, B. H.
17/06/13 → 16/06/18
Project: Research
Profiles
-
Professor Bernard H Stark
- Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering - Professor of Electrical Engineering
- Cabot Institute for the Environment
- Electrical Energy Management
Person: Academic , Member