Experimental Comparison of an Active Gate Driver and a dv/dt Filter to Reduce the Output dv/dt of a SiC EV Drive Inverter

Abstract

In this paper, a comparison between an active gate driver, a dv/dt filter and a conventional gate driver with gate resistors fitted to match the dv/dt limits for an EV drive inverter is drawn. After creating a mathematical model of a dv/dt filter accounting for input dv/dt and giving an introduction to the active gate driver design and control and the filter design, measurement results are presented. A comparison between the measurements and the model shows that the new model accurately represents the actual filter behavior. Measurements using virtual sinusoidal currents show the losses measured with the active gate driver are either higher or similar to those measured with the filter, depending on the dv/dt target value, DC-link voltage and load current, while the conventional gate driver always causes the highest losses. At the same time, the active gate driver can help to increase the volumetric and gravimetric power density of an inverter, making it an attractive option for electric vehicles.