Active gate control for switching waveform shaping irrespective of the circuit stray inductance in a practical full-bridge IGBT inverter

Abstract

This paper proposes an active gate control method for switching waveform shaping irrespective of circuit stray inductance and an evaluating system based on a practical full-bridge inverter equipped with digital gate drivers. The main circuit of the proposed system has 1700-V, 150-A IGBT power modules in a practical circuit layout resulting in large stray inductances. The proposed system has a capability of optimizing driving patterns for shaping the designed switching waveform. In experimental verification, active gate control can suppress the surge voltage from higher than 60% to 6% with a fast switching speed in three different circuit layout of the proposed practical 50-kVA full-bridge inverter. As a result, this paper reveals that active gate control achieves reduction in effect of stray inductance and increases a freedom of the circuit layout in power converters.