An Adaptive Current-Source Gate Driver for High-Voltage SiC mosfets

This article presents a novel current-source gate driver for Silicon Carbide (SiC) metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (<sc>mosfets</sc>) with adaptive functionalities. The proposed driver aims to decouple and improve controllability of <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$di/dt$</tex-math></inline-formula>, <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$dv/dt$</tex-math></inline-formula>, as well as to decrease turn-<sc>on</sc> and turn-<sc>off</sc>delay times compared to conventional totem-pole voltage-source gate drivers and conventional current-source gate drivers. The circuit topology of the proposed gate driver and the working principle are analyzed for the turn-<sc>on</sc> and turn-<sc>off</sc>processes. Furthermore, the driving requirements in terms of gate voltage and gate current for SiC <sc>mosfets</sc> that determine the design and tuning of gate drivers are presented. The performance of the proposed gate driver is validated experimentally on a 3.3 kV/750 A SiC <sc>mosfet</sc> half-bridge power module. It is shown that, compared to conventional voltage-source gate drivers, the driver is capable of significantly reducing turn-<sc>on</sc> and turn-<sc>off</sc>delay times by approximately 57% and 33%, respectively. Moreover, the proposed gate driver enables 233% controllability of <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$di/dt$</tex-math></inline-formula> and 87% of <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$dv/dt$</tex-math></inline-formula>.