Implementation of Gate Driver Circuit for Suppressing Both Surge Voltage and Switching Loss by Using Mutual Inductance

Abstract

Recently, the development of power devices, such as SiC and GaN devices has lead to the increase in research on the influence of parasitic parameters, such as wiring inductance, parasitic capacitance, and packaging inductance in power converter circuits. In general, the converter circuit has several circuit loops, including higher-voltage circuit, gate-drive, and low voltage control circuits, on one printed circuit board. However, studies have discussed the influence of a mutual inductance between higher-voltage and gate-drive circuits. Mutual inductances between the circuits could influence the switching characteristics, such as surge voltage and switching loss. This paper describes an influence of mutual inductance on the higher-voltage and gate-drive circuits, and presents the simulation and experimental results rated at 500V and 20A using SiC-MOSFET and SBD. Moreover, this paper proposes an implementation of a gate drive circuit by using mutual inductance for suppression of both surge voltage and switching loss.