An Integrated Gate Driver Based on SiC MOSFETs Adaptive Multi-Level Control Technique

Abstract

In HV (high-voltage) and HF (high-frequency) applications, SiC (silicon carbide) MOSFET is widely used for its small parasitic characteristics and fast switching speed. Using discrete devices on PCB, the active gate driver is usually adopted to restrict EMI (electromagnetic interference) noise. This method could achieve a limited switching performance improvement, and many disadvantages still exist. In this paper, the integrated adaptive multi-level gate driver is presented to improve the switching performance of SiC MOSFET in HV and HF applications. The proposed gate driver is realized on the chip using critical techniques such as <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">dV/dt</i> noise attenuation, high-speed circuit, and anti-false triggering mechanism. Then, the proposed gate drive is fabricated in a 0.18 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu$</tex-math> </inline-formula> m BCD process and occupies a 4.16 mm <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^{2}$</tex-math> </inline-formula> active area. The experimental results show that SiC MOSFET can achieve a 200 ns switching time, 0.8 mJ energy losses, no more than 15 V/ns average <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">dV/dt</i> noises, and 1.5 A/ns average <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">di/dt</i> noises under a 600 V power supply and a 33 A load. SiC MOSFET can also realize the excellent switching performance at different load currents from 15 A to 90 A by using the proposed adaptive multi-level gate driver.